O C TO BER 2015 50MOVESM AG A ZIN E .

C O M

‘I came
here to win’
Paw n En d gam e St u d i e s The Petrof f Rules of Thumb?
I M Jun t a Iked a IM Max Illi ngworth F M Chr i s Walli s
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CONTENTS

EDITORS
Moulthun Ly 4 SINQUEFIELD CUP - ARONIAN BACK ON TOP IN ST LOUIS
Fedja Zulfic Ian Rogers covers a most remarkable super-GM tournament.

MAIN CONTRIBUTORS 24 LEVON ARONIAN

Ian Rogers’ interviewed the charismatic Armenian after his
Ian Rogers
tournament victory.
Max Illingworth
Junta Ikeda
Chris Wallis 32 STUDIES
Guy West Junta Ikeda takes us back to basics with pawn endgame studies.

PHOTOGRAPHY 34 CHESS HUNGER GAMES

Sergey Karjakin outlasted 127 players and won a crazy final.
Cover: Cathy Rogers

42 MAX ILLINGWORTH - LIFE OF A CHESS PLAYER

Cathy Rogers
We spoke to Max about his life since turning pro following his first
appearance at a World Cup.
Maria Emelianova

78 ROOKIES CORNER - KNIGHT FORKS

Learn about one of the most common chess tactics, sure to win you
some more games!

80 BOOK REVIEW: SAMUEL LIPSCHUTZ - A LIFE IN CHESS

Guy West reviews the new book by Australian chessplayer Stephen
Davies.
50 Moves Magazine ©

New issues are released in early

86 OPENINGS COLUMN
February, April, June, August, October Max Illingworth looks at a popular antidote to 1.e4 for Black - the
and December. Petroff Defence.

Email:
94 ENDGAMES COLUMN - RULES OF THUMB
support@50movesmagazine.com
Chris Wallis looks at some examples of the mistaken use of ‘rules of
thumb’ in situations where they do not strictly apply.
Website:

50movesmagazine.com 98 SOLUTIONS
See how you went with the studies and knight fork problems!
ABN: 90822679591
Topalov Tops,
Aronian Back on
Carlsen Flops in
Top in St Louis
Norway Chess
Report by Ian Rogers
Photos by Cathy Rogers

T
He leafy streets of the Central West End in Saint Louis
seem an
There is a tide in the affairs unlikely place to be one of the chess centres of the
of men.
world,
Which, taken at the flood, buton
leads after the third Sinquefield Cup such claims may
to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyagenotof be
their
as life
far-fetched as they sounded when first made a few
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
years ago.
Shakespeare – Julius Caesar
An affluent suburb about 10 kilometres from the Saint Louis
city centre, the Central West End features the three storey Saint Louis Chess
Club and Scholastic Centre, an adjoining chess-themed restaurant - the Kingside
Diner, the World Chess Hall of Fame across the road and a house for visiting
4  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
 Article by Ian Rogers

Photography by Cathy Rogers

Grandmaster lecturers nearby – all courtesy of extensive private funding from

Rex and Jeanne Sinquefield.

Having hosted multiple US Championships and two previous Sinquefield Cups,

the most recent tournament at the Saint Louis CCSC, the second leg of the
Grand Chess Tour, was the icing on the cake. The chess world may have been
spoilt for super-tournaments in recent years, but the 2015 Sinquefield Cup, with
9 of the top 11 players in the world, pushes it into a category of historic tourna-
ments with no tail, alongside Left:
AVRO 1938 and Las Palmas 1996.
Carlsen arrives with Hammer

OCTOBER 2015  5
Sinquefield CuP
After his psychological collapse at the first Grand
Chess Tour event, Norway Chess, Magnus Carlsen was
expected to resume his run of successes but it was
Levon Aronian who stole the show.
18 months ago Aronian was seen as Carlsen’s likely
challenger for the world title, but a disastrous 2014
Candidates tournament saw Aronian’s hopes dashed
and a gradual fall from grace for the affable Armenian.
Aronian’s low point was reached recently when he
dropped out of the world’s top ten for the first time in a
decade.
When Aronian began the 2015 Sinquefield Cup he was
ranked ninth of the ten competitors and when Aronian
gave a pre-tournament interview saying that he had
come to Saint Louis to win, it was viewed as good-
humoured braggadocio.
Yet, adopting a new persona of chess caveman, Aronian
beat Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So with violent attacks
to share the tournament lead as early as Round 4 with
early pace-setter Veselin Topalov, who had beaten
Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura in the first two
rounds. Most of all, Aronian appeared happy; it seemed
that his profession was no longer a chore for him.
Topalov faded, as did Carlsen’s mid-tournament
challenge, leaving Aronian a comfortable winner of the
third Sinquefield Cup, a point clear of the field.
Asked to explain his success, Aronian said that his
hangover from the 2014 Candidates tournament had
lasted long enough and “after so many setbacks, I
needed to show to myself that I was still capable of
something.”
The 32-year-old netted $US 75,000 for the win, saying
that he had not changed his game significantly but
merely sought to be more aggressive when the
opportunity arose.
6  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
Aronian had prepared for the tournament by joining
Carlsen in a training camp in Long Island, New York,
and the World Champion was one of many who greeted
Aronian’s win with pleasure, saying “I’m very happy
for him - he hasn’t played this well for a while and I’m
happy he is getting his game together.”
Kasparov was even more enthusiastic, tweeting “The
chess world is a better place when Aronian is playing
well!”
For Carlsen the tournament, while not a disaster like
the first Grand Chess Tour tournament in Stavanger,
was a source of endless frustration. A repeat first
round loss to Topalov - “This time I was beaten fair and
square,” said Carlsen – was followed by a desperately
lucky win against Fabiano Caruana; a game where both
players reached move 40 with seconds to spare but it
was Caruana who managed to throw away a likely win
with his final move of the time control.
A come-back seemed likely as Carlsen reached a tie for
first with Aronian after five rounds, but a second loss
with White, this time to Grischuk after faltering in a long
defensive task, left Carlsen unable to recover.
Last year at the Sinquefield Cup Veselin Topalov had
lost his first two games but fought back to reach 50%. In
2015 the Grand Chess Tour leader suffered the reverse
fate, winning the first two rounds but still eventually
finishing on 50%.
Three other players joined Carlsen in the tie for second.
Anish Giri won his first game but then drew
eight without going close to winning a game. The
tournament’s youngest player is becoming one of the
hardest players in the world to beat but has yet to
seriously threaten for a major tournament title.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave belied his low ranking – he
was world number 16 when the tournament started
– to cause problems for many opponents and beat
 The player’s refreshments room
Topalov convincingly. Vachier-Lagrave felt that Saint
Louis together with his solid result in Stavanger showed
that he was comfortable among the world’s elite;
true enough, but his sharp style also leaves room for
disappointments (such as Vachier-Lagrave’s last place in
the Khanty-Mansiysk Grand Prix tournament earlier in
2015).
Hikaru Nakamura can claim to be the most consistent
player of 2015 following wins in Gibraltar, Zurich, Khanty
Mansiysk and the US Championship, plus second place
finishes in Stavanger and the Sinquefield Cup.
Nakamura’s 5/9 score was achieved the hard way,
playing 100 more moves than any other competitor.
Tough endgame losses to Topalov and Aronian were
counterbalanced by wins against Anand and So – the
latter game being the tournament brilliancy.
However it was his final round marathon against
Grischuk that earned Nakamura the most kudos; the
American took great risks but ultimately prevailed after
more than six hours. “The last few games have probably
taken a few years off my life,” said a relieved Nakamura
after his last game. “I didn’t deserve plus one.”
The rest of the field suffered various degrees of
disappointment.
Grischuk dropped from second to sixth with his final
round loss, while Anand and Caruana never recovered
from losing their first two games. Wesley So, 21, has
only begun competing in elite tournaments recently and
his inexperience showed when he lost three consecutive
games mid-tournament, two of them with White.
For all the games please refer to the PGN file.
OCTOBER 2015  7
Above: The entrance to the St Louis chess club
Below: Spectators in the video viewing room

8  50 MOVES MAGAZINE


Aronian, Levon 2808
Caruana, Fabiano 2765
Sinquefield Cup 2015 (1)
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3
Be7 5.Bf4 O-O 6.e3 Nbd7 7.c5 Ne4
“ I was not so much expecting this
line as hoping for it,” admitted
Aronian. “7...Ne4 is, I think, an idea
of Kasimdzhanov [Caruana’s second
IR] and Fabiano has played it twice.
8.Rc1 “Black’s idea is to take on
c3 and play b6, which will be fine
if White has a pawn on c3,” said
Aronian.
8...Nxc3 9.Rxc3 b6
10.c6 “I really like this position for
White,” said Aronian, “but
maybe that is because I don’t
understand all the subtleties of the
position!”
10...Nf6 11.a3 a5 12.Bd3 Ne4
13.Rc2
“I considered 13.Rc1 but am quite
happy to follow the young people,”
said Aronian, emulating the retreat
played by Giri in a game against
Caruana.
13...f6!? The first new idea. “Of
course 13...Ba6 is playable but after
14.Bxa6 Rxa6 15.Ne5 Bd6 16.Nd7
the knight on d7 is very annoying,”
explained Aronian. “Giri only drew
from this position against Caruana
but I had some ideas how to
improve.”
14.Qe2! “Now if I can prevent him
from playing ...e5 his bishop on c8
will be dead, “ explained Aronian.
14...Bd6 15.O-O g5!? Played quickly,
as had been all Caruana’s moves up
to this point. “
15...Qe7 was more natural but
Caruana had probably seen some
deep problem with it,” said Aronian.
Sinquefield CuP
16.Bxd6 Nxd6 Diagram
“On 16...Qxd6 I was considering
17.Nd2 Nxd2 18.Rxd2!? Qxc6 19.f4!
,” said Aronian, “though I would
probably only have played this if I
worked out the attack to mate!”
17.Re1!? Aronian was extremely
happy with this move. “White wants
to play Nd2 and f4,” explained
Aronian, “but if 17.Nd2 Black will
reply 17...e5 and after 18.e4 my rook
is not useful on f1. So I play 17.Re1
and ask Black to find a useful
move.”
17...a4 18.Nd2 e5 “He must play
this,” said Aronian. “If he lets
me play f4 his bishop will be
dead for the rest of the game. For
example after 18...f5 19.f4 g4 the
position is blocked but really Black is
effectively a piece down and White
will eventually win on the kingside.”
19.e4! Diagram
OCTOBER 2015  9
SINQUEFIELD CUP
19...f5!? “I don’t trust this move.,”
said Aronian. “I was expecting 19...
exd4 when I analysed 20.exd5!?
Re8 21.Qd1 Rxe1+ 22.Qxe1 Ra5
23.Nc4 Rxd5 24.Nxd6 Rxd6 25.Re2
Kf8 26.Qb4 and thought that I might
still have some pressure. Then I
wondered whether I have time for
20.Rcc1! when I couldn’t see
a good way for Black to respond.”
20.f3! dxe4?!
“This must be wrong,” said Aronian.
“Certainly 20...exd4 21.exd5 ( 21.e5!?
) 21...Re8 22.Qd1 Rxe1+ 23.Qxe1 Ra5
24.Nc4 Rxd5 25.Nxd6 Rxd6 26.Re2
Kf8 27.Qb4 is more difficult for Black
than the previous line, because the
f5-pawn gets in the way.
“However 20...Re8 21.Qf2 will
10  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
probably lead to something similar.
21.fxe4 Ra5 22.exf5! “
22.dxe5 Rxe5 23.Nf3 is probably
also good but I wanted to open up
against Black’s king,” said Aronian.
“By now I had the feeling that
I would win within another 10
moves.”
22...Nxf5 23.Bc4+!
23.dxe5 Nd4 24.Qh5 Bf5 was not
convincing enough for Aronian.
23...Kg7 24.d5! Re8? Played after
only 7 seconds thought and soon
regretted. “
24...Nd6! 25.Qxe5+ Qf6 was the
most persistent and would have
spoiled my plan of winning in 10
moves,” admitted Aronian.
25.Ne4! Nd4 Diagram
Left:
Aronian got off to
a fast start, beating
last year’s sensation
Caruana in front of a
large crowd.
“I thought that 25...Nd6 was the best
defence but after 26.Nxd6 Qxd6
27.Rf1! Black lacks the single tempo
he needs to finally develop his
bishop,” said Aronian.
26.Qh5! Nxc2 Based on a
miscalculation but it is too late to
go back. “I thought that 26...Bf5 was
the best chance,” said Aronian, “but
after 27.Rf2 Bg6 28.Qh3 I would be
very happy.”
27.Nxg5 Bf5 Diagram
27...Nxe1 walks into the pretty
finish. 28.Qxh7+ Kf6 29.Ne4#!
28.Rf1‼ The point behind White’s
sacrifice - temporarily staying a rook
down.
28.Qf7+ Kh6 29.Qxf5 Qxg5 30.Qxc2
was certainly not White’s idea.

28...Qf6 “Fabiano said that after 28...
Bg6 29.Rf7+ Kg8 he missed 30.Qh6!
,” explained Aronian, “Though I also
thought that 30.d6 Bxh5 31.Rxc7+
Bf7! 32.Nxf7 might be winning.”
On that small point Aronian was
wrong - after 32...Qh4! Black turns
the tables. “Anyway,” added Aronian,
“you don’t need a queen sacrifice
when you can mate in two.”
29.Ne6+ “I saw I had a million
wins, but as my mother says, ‘A
caravan camel gets the urge to
dance when he’s approaching
a bridge over water,’” explained
Aronian.
29.Rxf5 Qxf5 30.Ne6+ Kf6 31.Qxe8
was also crushing.
29...Rxe6 30.Rxf5 Qg6 31.dxe6
Qxh5 32.Rxh5 Nd4 33.e7
“Here I saw a beautiful geometrical
win,” said Aronian, “though almost
anything wins, for example 33.Bd3
h6 34.e7 Ra8 35.Rxe5 Re8 36.Re4
when the knight cannot go to f5.”
If 36...Nf5 37.Rg4+ Kf6 38.Rf4 wins.
I.R.
33...Ra8 34.Rxe5 Re8 #
35.Re4! Nf5
35...Nxc6 36.Bb5 is similarly
disastrous for Black.
36.Be6! Nd6
On 36...Nxe7 37.Bd7 wins.
37.Bd7! Nxe4 38.Bxe8 Kf6 39.Bg6!
1-0
Carlsen, Magnus 2853
Topalov, Veselin 2816
Sinquefield Cup 2015 (1)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Nd7 4.O-O
Nf6 5.Re1 a6 6.Bd3 b5 7.c4!?
SINQUEFIELD CUP
7...g5!
7...g5 is a very interesting move - I
couldn’t find a clear way to play
after that,” admitted Carlsen.
7...g5 was first suggested by David
Smerdon in February 2014 when
analysing a Carlsen-Nakamura
game for Chesspublishing.com,
and that article had been noted by
Topalov’s seconds at the time while
preparing for the 2014 Candidates
tournament. The only other high
level game after 7.c4 had seen
Nakamura play 7...Ne5 but after
8.Bf1 Nxc4 ( 8...Bg4 ?! 9.cxb5! ) 9.a4!
White had considerable pressure for
the pawn.
8.Nxg5 Ne5 9.Be2 bxc4 10.Na3
10.f4 Nd3 11.Bxd3 cxd3 gives Black
good play because a forcing attempt
such as 12.e5?! dxe5 13.fxe5 Qd4+
14.Kh1 Ng4 15.Qf3 does not force
Black to take a perpetual check
OCTOBER 2015  11
 Carlsen had another tough tournament following his poor performance at Norway Chess
because 15...Rb8! 16.Qxf7+ Kd8
leaves White in trouble.
10.Nf3 was the most sober
response, though Black retains
compensation after 10...Nd3
11.Bxd3 cxd3 “I couldn’t decide
whether to go for the normal option
or sacrifice a piece,” admitted
Carlsen, who spent almost half an
hour on this move.
10...Rg8
12  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
11.Nxc4!?
A fantastic idea, prepared by a long
think on the previous move. “I knew
I was going to sacrifice a piece when
I played 10.Na3 but I wasn’t playing
very practically,” said Carlsen. “I
suspected that it might not be good
but I thought that I wouldn’t be
much worse even in the worst case.
I was also taking my opponent’s
style into account. However I
should have played it quickly to
have more time at critical junctures
later.”
Topalov was more sceptical; “It’s
not what White’s supposed to do
on move 10, be a piece down and
fighting for equality.”
11...Nxc4 12.d4 Nb6 13.Bh5!
13.dxc5! dxc5 14.Bh5 is a more
 SINQUEFIELD CUP

annoying move order but will likely

transpose to the game.

13...Nxh5 14.Qxh5 Rg7 15.Nxh7

Attempting to set up Nf6+ tricks, 19...Kd8! Suddenly the queens must

but Topalov handles the threats be exchanged, White’s attack is over
perfectly. “I needed to accept that and he must defend a near hopeless
I was not better and play more endgame.
solidly,” admitted Carlsen. Most
“As soon as I played this I saw that
humans would be very reluctant 20.Qxg6 Rxg6 21.Ne4 Bb7 22.h4
his answer would be 15...Qd7!,
to play 17.Nxf8! allowing 17...Qh3! Rc8 23.h5 Rg8 24.Bd2 Nc4 25.Bc3
not threatening 16...Qg4 as I had
18.Qxh3 Bxh3 19.g3 but, despite the Bh6 26.Rad1+ Ke8 27.Rd3 Bf4
expected but 16...Qh3 which is
semi-trapped knight, “I think I would 28.Nf2 Bc6 29.Nh3 Bg3 30.Re2 Bb5
much stronger,” explained Carlsen.
still be perfectly fine then,” said 31.Rd1 Bc6
Carlsen.
15...Qd7! The most testing
continuation for White.
17...Qc6! Missed by Carlsen.

15...Rxh7 16.Qxh7 cxd4 is fine

17...Qh3? would allow a Carlsen
for Black but White retains some
trick via 18.Nf6+! Kd8 19.Rd1+ Kc7
trumps in Black’s weak king and the
20.Ne8+ while on 17...Qg4 18.Nf6+!
passed h-pawn.
exf6 19.exf6+ Be6 20.fxg7 Qxh5
21.g8=Q O-O-O 22.Qg5! holds the
16.dxc5 dxc5 17.e5?
balance.

18.f3 Qg6 19.Nf6+

32.Nf2?! “I still should have had

chances to resist but a couple of
stupid blunders made it easy for
him ,” sad Carlsen.

OCTOBER 2015  13
 Nakamura won the battle against his new compatriot
32.Rd3 would at least force Toplaov
to find a new winning plan.
32...Bxe5! “In time trouble he let me
do everything,” said Topalov.
33.Ng4
33.Bxe5 Bxf3 and 33.Rxe5 Nxe5
34.Bxe5 Bxf3 are both hopeless for
White
33...Bxc3 34.bxc3 Kf8 35.Kf2 With
only one pawn for the piece there
is little reason to play on but both
players were in time trouble so
14  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
Carlsen decides to play on until the
time control.
35...Rh8 36.Ne5 Nxe5 37.Rxe5 Be8
38.g4 f6 39.Re6 Bb5 40.Rde1 Rc7
0-1
So, Wesley 2779
Nakamura, Hikaru 2814
Sinquefield Cup 2015
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6
“I haven’t played the King’s Indian
very often recently,” said Nakamura.
“My former coach Kasparov decided
long ago that it wins for White
thanks to all his brutal losses to
Kramnik!”
5.Nf3 O-O 6.Be2 e5 7.O-O Nc6 8.d5
Ne7 9.Ne1 Nd7 10.f3!? f5
Above: Nakamura with his girlfriend Mariagrazia De Rosa
Below: Anish Giri with his wife Sopiko Guramishvili

OCTOBER 2015  15
STAVAnGeR nORWAY CHeSS

The St Louis chess museum

16  50 MOVES MAGAZINE

 STAVAnGeR nORWAY CHeSS

Autograph signing with the players.

OCTOBER 2015  17
SINQUEFIELD CUP

confessed Nakamura, “but if he

14.c5 Nf6 15.Rc1 Rf7 keeps thinking I think I am going to
do very well. But anyway, I am going
to try to mate him!” (Nakamura
will have been well pleased that So
spent 7 minutes on his next move
and an hour on the next four.)

21.Qc2 Qf8!? 22.Rc1 Bd7

11.Be3!? “When choosing the King’s

Indian I expected Wesley to go for
something more calm,” confessed
16.Kh1 A waiting move; Nakamura
Nakamura. It is already too late
had already faced 16.a4 which
for 11.Nd3 ?! as 11...f4 leads to a
also hopes Black will play ...h5. The
superior version of the main line for
problem for White is that the direct
Black.
16.cxd6 cxd6 17.Nb5 allows Black
to play 17...g4! without ...h5, and
However 11.g4 is more popular than
that means that ...g3 will come with
Korchnoi’s favourite plan with 10 or
extra effect because the h5-square 23.Rc7? “I think that Wesley
11.Be3.
is available to the f6-knight. just needs to learn to prepare
better. There are a lot of lines like
11...f4 12.Bf2 g5 13.Nd3 A small
16...h5 17.cxd6 cxd6 18.Nb5 a6 this in the King’s Indian where the
surprise for Nakamura.
19.Na3 computer will say something like
+2, but in such a position it is very
13.a4 is the main line, but So had
19.Na7!? is the sort of move easy to go wrong,” said Nakamura
scored well in the recent past with
Korchnoi used to get away with, but after the game. “In fact I didn’t see
both 13.Rc1 and 13.g4!?.
here after 19...Bd7 20.Qb3 g4 Black’s much play for him after 21.Qc2 and
attack proceeds quickly. 22.Rc1.”
13...Ng6 The original game with
this line, an Averbakh v Bronstein
19...b5 20.Rc6 The first new move; 23.Nb4! is the critical choice after
encounter from the 1952 Soviet
by now So had used only 3 minutes which 23...Bxc6 24.dxc6 gives White
Championship, saw the
while Nakamura had started considerable play, so it is more
cruder 13...Rf6 14.c5 Rh6. While
thinking two moves earlier. likely that Nakamura would have
dangerous, the ...Qe8-h5 plan is
gonefor 23...g3!? 24.Bg1 ( 24.hxg3
considered insufficient for Black and
20...g4 “If Wesley keeps playing fxg3 25.Bxg3 h4 26.Bf2 h3! gets very
Bronstein lost the aforementioned
quickly I think I will be in trouble,” scary for White. )
game.

18  50 MOVES MAGAZINE


24...gxh2 25.Bf2 when the outcome
of the kingside v queenside race is
still up in the air.
23...Bh6! 24.Be1 h4! 25.fxg4
25...f3! 26.gxf3 Nxe4! 27.Rd1 ?! An
inconsequential move which took
So 30 minutes, but it seems that
nothing is sufficient any more.
”I was shocked that he played this
after thinking for so long.
27.Rxd7 was the only try, but after
27...Rxf3 28.Bxf3 Qxf3+ 29.Qg2
Qxd3 30.Rd1 and now the computer
said 30...Bd2 ‼ but I had looked at
30...h3! [The same move Anand
had suggested in the commentary
room. IR] and I think Black wins,”
said Nakamura. Play could continue
31.Rxd3 hxg2+ 32.Kg1 Nc5 winning
back the exchange with advantage.
27.Nb4 suggested by Vachier-
Lagrave, trying to set up a skewer
along the c2-g6 diagonal, is also
SINQUEFIELD CUP
insufficient after 27...Rxf3! 28.Qxe4
Rf1+ 29.Kg2 h3+! 30.Kxh3 Nf4+
31.Kg3 Rg1+ and White will soon be
mated.
It should be noted that 27.fxe4
loses directly to 27...Rf1+ 28.Kg2
Be3! threatening ...h3+ and...Qh6+.
27...Rxf3 28.Rxd7 Rf1+ 29.Kg2
34...Nhf3!
Now the threat of 35...Qh3+ forces
a quick mate, which So sportingly
allows.
35.Nf2 Qh4+ 36.Kf5 Rf8+ 37.Kg6
Rf6+! 38.Kxf6 Ne4+ 39.Kg6 Qg5
29...Be3! Missed by So, yet there are
plenty of alternative wins, the most
beautiful being 29...h3+ 30.Kxh3 Rf2
‼ (Or) 30...Rg1! or 30...Rxe1! 31.Rxe1
Qf2 ‼ (31.Bxf2 Qxf2 ‼).
“I saw s ome ideas like this but I
couldn’t make it work,” admitted
Nakamura, a little annoyed that he
had not found this line and finished
off the game with 32.Nxf2 Nf4+ 0-1
33.Kh4 Bg5#!
30.Bg3 hxg3! 31.Rxf1 Nh4+ 32.Kh3
Qh6! 33.g5 Nxg5+ 34.Kg4
OCTOBER 2015  19
SINQUEFIELD CUP

Crowds
Aronian, like many other players in Saint Louis,
expressed his pleasure at playing in front of an
enthusiastic crowd – a rarity when so many top events
are held more for the internet audience than for local
fans.
The autograph signing days attracted more than 300
fans with memorabilia of all kinds. Though signing
autographs was not what most of the players would
have preferred to be doing the day before a big
tournament, it was a small price to pay for generating
an atmosphere of enthusiasm and interest, an
atmosphere which permeated the playing hall and the
nearby commentary venues.

20  50 MOVES MAGAZINE

 SINQUEFIELD CUP

still alive, a boon for the London organisers and the

GRAND CHESS TOUR Norwegian television broadcasters.

At the closing press conference, Garry Kasparov

Plans for expansion of the Grand Tour to four or even
admitted that the Grand Chess Tour had suffered some
six tournaments are on hold because the 2016 calendar
teething troubles in its first year.
is so crowded, with a Candidates tournament, Olympiad
and world title match in the same year.
However with two of the three Tour events held so far,
it seems clear that the benefits of bringing the world
The 2016 Grand Tour will invite the top three finishers
elite together outweigh any technical flaws in the Tour
from the 2015 Tour plus the next six highest rated
concept.
players for the 2016 tour. In 2015 only Vladimir Kramnik
declined his invitation, but in a busy 2016 there is a risk
The scoring system, especially breaking ties in favour of
of more top players sitting out the Grand Tour.
the player with most losses, needs some improvement
. Having Topalov (first and sixth in the first two Tour
events) leading the Tour standings ahead of Nakamura
(two ties for second) is weird. However using a system Below:
which favours inconsistency has had the side-effect
that Carlsen’s chances of winning the 2015 Tour are The World Chess Hall of Fame is worth a visit

OCTOBER 2015  21
Sinquefield CuP

Pawn Sacrifice Sacrifice centres around the development of Fischer’s

mental illness; paranoia in particular.

At the end of the tournament a special screening of

When asked if he liked the film or not, Garry Kasparov’s
the Hollywood film Pawn Sacrifice was arranged at the
short comment was “Could be worse.” He explained “My
players’ hotel, the Chase Park Plaza. Guests included
main worry is if the film promotes chess or not,” clearly
Garry Kasparov and the film’s producer Gail Katz, who
fearing that the answer was not.
also answered questions at the end of the film.

Kasparov also took issue with the screenwriters’ choice

For most of the Sinquefield Cup players Bobby Fischer
of game 6 of the 1972 Fischer-Spassky match as pivotal
and Boris Spassky are merely historical figures like
and, according to the film “still regarded as the greatest
Capablanca and Morphy; Anand is the only one of the
game of all time”.
Sinquefield 10 who has played Spassky, and he also met
Fischer in Iceland.
“There were two great games in the 1972 match –
games 10 and 13 – which could have been the climax of
Rather than document the milestones of Fischer’s
the film,” said Kasparov.
journey to the top of world chess as the documentary
Bobby Fischer Against the World had done, Pawn

Left:
A screenshot from the
film “Pawn Sacrafice”,
starting Liev Schreiber
as Boris Spassky and
Toby Maguire as
Bobby Fischer.

22  50 MOVES MAGAZINE

 Sinquefield CuP

Ultimate Moves Tandem chess is notoriously difficult and here doubly

so with so many GMs generating ideas and the certainty
that everything would be ruined when Rex Sinquefield
As soon as the tournament finished the younger players
and Randy took over each side at a critical moment.
relaxed with late nights of lightning and bughouse
chess, and all joined in for the organised mayhem of
While the purists groaned, the games were entertaining
Ultimate Moves.
and the players could be seen at their most relaxed
with the Saint Louis Chess Club alive with chess clock
The 10 GMs were split into teams, with Yasser Seirawan
assaults and laughter. With all the work required to
and Rex Sinquefield added to one side, and Kasparov
become a world class player, it was great to see that the
and Rex’s son Randy to the other.
world’s best GMs have not forgotten how much fun it is
to just play chess.

Top left: Maurice Ashley clearly enjoyed commentating Top right: Seirawan battles Kasparov
Bottom: Even the world’s best play transfer OCTOBER 2015  23
 inTeRVieW

LEVON ARONIAN SPEAKS

“I AM JUST A GOOD PLAYER”

A
fter his win of the 2105 Sinquefield Cup, Levon Aronian
spoke to Ian Rogers about his career, from his youth as
the Soviet Union collapsed to recovering from failure at
the 2014 Candidates tournament.

At the Pioneer Palace there was a teacher who taught

Early Years – Checkers and Chess
me how the pieces move properly. From this lady I got
to know how to castle properly and the en passant rule.
I was born in Yerevan and that’s where I live now.
I came up with these puzzles – mates in 1 - and I really
thought I am so brilliant. I didn’t know anybody else who
I learned chess at eight and a half. I was a sick child –
could create such brilliancies. Not that anybody was
not too sick ; flu, small things. My older sister taught me
impressed, but the kids in the group were very kind to me.
because I was really bored.

My maternal grandpa had tried to teach me earlier but

The end of the USSR
I never liked chess because it was too complex. I liked
The daughter of my teacher was about to get married to a
checkers. There are pictures of me at chessboards when I
guy who was a refugee from Baku – he was a very strong
was four or five, playing checkers. I would keep on asking
player. At that time he didn’t have any titles but he was
guests to come and play checkers with me and anybody
regularly playing in the highest league of Armenia. His
who would visit – colleagues of my dad or mum – they
name was Melik Khachiyan, he was 10 years older than
would have to play me.
me and he was my trainer at the time. Then something
happened and they never got married. He graduated so
So in 1991 I started to play; these were Soviet times, just,
he couldn’t stay in the university dorm. When the col-
and I went to the House of Pioneers. It was normal in
lapse of the Soviet Union started my parents told him
Soviet times to be in a Pioneer Palace. Teachers would
‘if you want you can stay in our house.’ My parents had
get paid by the government, though the salary wasn’t
been paying him as my trainer but now he stayed in the
exciting.
house and they didn’t pay him. Melik lived with us for 5
years and he was like a brother to me.

24  50 MOVES MAGAZINE

Interview by Ian Rogers
Photos by Cathy Rogers
leVOn AROniAn

Union were going nuts. I was drinking so much Sprite and

When the Soviet Union collapsed,
Fanta I think I exceeded my limits.
I stopped going to school.
I improved a lot over the two years because I was train-
My dad is from Belarus and didn’t speak good Armenian,
ing with a very strong coach and in 1994 I won the World
so we spoke Russian at home and I was going to Russian
U/12 Championship in Szeged.
school. My Armenian was pretty bad. Armenia needed to
build a national movement but unfortunately this national
Two years later I was in a youth team at the Yerevan
movement was anti-Russian, as everywhere [in the ex-
Olympiad. There was Asrian, Mirumian and me; it was a
Soviet states]. All the Russian schools were closed - there
pretty good team. I never had doubts that I should make
were only two Russian language schools that were open
it as a chessplayer – I didn’t really have any choice. I had
and they were in the centre. We lived in a poor area
no other profession so I had to make it. My parents, espe-
quite far from the centre of Yerevan; in the winter public
cially my mother dedicated all of her
transport was very bad and the
time to find help like getting me spon-
trip to school was killing. So I
sors and coaches.
never went to school after the
break up of the Soviet Union.
‘ I was always
Melik got married so he moved out
I wasn’t home schooled; I was ignoring material... but by then we were training only
just playing chess. I am a book-
worm but I can’t really say this
sacrificing things a little together. We trained inten-
sively for 3 years but from the age
was home schooling.
and not caring ’ of 13 to 15 I was just stagnating.– not
really improving. Then I had some
So mostly Melik and I were just
time training with Arsen Yegiazarian.
working together. He had no
He was responsible for many many
title but from day one I had an IM level player for train-
Armenian players. We had three main coaches in Armenia
ing. In the USSR every city had its chess school; it comes
in the 1990s: Nadanian, Yegiazarian and Khachian.
from generations of teachers teaching students, students
Everyone was their student at some time in their life.
becoming teachers, etc, etc. You have the Moscow school,
[the Baku school]. What they call the Soviet Chess School
From a very early age I had very good calculation, pretty
doesn’t really exist. Because of the war we had many
good tactical vision, fantasy, but I was always ignoring
Armenian chessplayers from Baku coming to Yerevan,
material – I was always sacrificing things and not caring.
Shakarov’s students. Melik was one; he became a GM
and now lives in the US.
Then I was lucky enough to have the chance to train with
Arshak Petrosian; just a month but it had a great impact
Playing Internationally on me. Arshak taught me to appreciate the games of
players who played positionally, and added some subtlety
In 1992 I played in the first Armenian Championship for
to my play. But one month of course was not that much
10 year olds and by winning that I qualified to play in
but I could feel that this was also a type of chess school.
Duisburg at the World Youth Championships. I played
badly but it was insane, like going to a different planet;
having soft drinks and chocolate. People from the Soviet

26  50 MOVES MAGAZINE

 Aronian was understandably relaxed after winning the tournament
That change in attitude caused me to ask Gabriel Sargissian
to start training with me; he became my coach and best
friend. He is younger than me and was much lower rated
but I started understanding that he is a very strong player,
his positional understanding is on a world class level .
He is strategically very talented; he feels where pieces
should be placed, whether pieces should be exchanged
or not. Most of the things I have learned from the age of
16 until even now, I learned from him. I kept my tactical
skills and I took his positional knowledge from him. He
was my biggest influence.
In 1999 I joined a Bundesliga team, Wattenscheid; this
was a big deal for me. The pay wasn’t great but I played
on board one so this was a chance to play against people
whom I would never dream of playing, like Kasimdzhanov
– very strong players. Arshak Petrosian’s daughter Sophie
spoke German and she got into negotiations and found
me a team. She rooted for me because I was Arshak’s
student and Arshak’s family treated me like a son.
Moving to Germany
I moved to Germany in 2001 because I got upset with
my national federation for not including me in our
national team. I had an agreement with the head of the
Federation; if I win the Armenian Championship I will be
in the team. Then Gabriel and I shared first place and he
said one of you cannot go. Gabriel played in the 2002 Bled
Olympiad. However even in Istanbul 2000 I should have
been included, so this was a long-standing complaint. I
was on the outer with the Federation and I felt that no
matter how strongly I played I would never get into the
Armenian team.
OCTOBER 2015  27
leVOn AROniAn
Around the same time I lost one of my sponsors. He was
a businessman giving money so I could survive playing
chess, about !?00 per month. Then something happened.
I believe his son passed away and he said he couldn’t
help me any more. However, he did so in a very frustrat-
ing way. He said “I will help you” and we said “Ok, great,
thank you”. Then he wrote a message that said ‘I will help
you by telling you that you cannot get help from me any
more because you are a strong player and you have to
help yourself.”
I was getting $500 a month and I have to support my
family. At that time to fly to a tour-
nament from Armenia I had to
take a loan from somebody. After
the fall of the Soviet Union it had
‘ In the last round
been impossible for my parents of a tournament I
to get jobs as scientists. In the last
round of a tournament I would be would be shaking ’
shaking – I could never just control
my emotions. But in Germany you
could just take a train everywhere -
it was really easy.
So my whole family moved to Berlin. My father is Jewish;
a big part of Belarus was populated by Jewish people
and most of my father’s family were killed [in WWII] so
Germany accepted them. My father is a very adventur-
ous man, he took work as an electrician, then he tried all
kinds of things to earn money in Yerevan but it just wasn’t
stable. Germany was better for my parents. Even there it
was very difficult to find work as they were already over
55, but they could get State help. They didn’t have any
German but they learnt quickly.
Based in Berlin, I started playing in lots of open tourna-
ments and I started winning them without big problems.
I didn’t get any invitations to elite tournament during this
time – I made my way up through my rating. My first invi-
tation to a super-tournament, Wijk aan Zee 2006, came
28  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
after I won the World Cup.
I changed Bundesliga teams when I became a stronger
player, over 2700. Then I decided to play for a Berlin team.
First it was Kreuzberg, playing for fun - I didn’t get paid.
Then I moved to Schachfreunde Berlin.
I was always trying to fight against Baden Baden, to find
a team which could play against them but I waited and
waited and when none came along I just joined them! I
am happy at Baden Baden – I like playing in the team and
Mr Grenke is a great guy. He is always very happy and he
loves chess.
That is what I really love in people
who sponsor a tournament when
they just can sit there, watch the
game, they are not intrusive – it’s
just respect and love towards the
games.
I always believed that Armenia
could win the Olympiad in Turin in
2006; I never had any illusions about how good we were.
Most of our players were underrated; at that time Gabriel
was barely 2600. It also wasn’t a surprise that we won two
more Olympiads, though it was a slightly different team
because unfortunately Karen [Asrian] passed away. The
core of the team hadn’t changed much and it still hasn’t
changed much. We won with every scoring system - 2006
was still a [game] points system.
The 2014 Candidates tournament,
from favourite to also-ran
The fact is that I didn’t manage to play well in the most
important tournament. At the 2014 Candidates tour-
nament in Khanty Mansiysk I believe I underestimated
Anand. I said to myself, “OK, I will slowly win this tour-
nament.” Then at one moment when we were equal he
 inTeRVieW

started winning and I think pressure got me and I started

Arianne Caoili
playing my worst chess. It was really unpleasant losing
the last round even when I wasn’t fighting for anything.
[My fiancee] Arianne [Caoili] is good for me because she
It felt really bad.
is ambitious and I think we understand each other very
well. Very early on she told me I am too relaxed, that I
At that time I had a whole lot of people working for me
shouldn’t be fighting for the top 10, I should be trying to
and I was trying to accomplish a lot but I have learned it
be number one. It was good to be with someone as ambi-
doesn’t really work this way. This was a mistake and I rely
tious as that.
much less on seconds nowadays. You have to control
things yourself more. Now I have only one person who
Arianne works in Yerevan now. Her official job is consulting
is a permanent second – Ashot Nadanian
a big government project and also she has a consultancy.
She will eventually work for herself in the private sector.
The rest of the year I did feel like
Her previous job was in Australia
playing and I was trying to give my
and it was a difficult decision for
best but something was dragging
me back. It happens.
‘ It would be much her to move from that very good
job with a very good salary to
harder for me if she Armenia. Before then she was
However the Tromso Olympiad was
dreadful [for Armenia]. Some of
was just following studying in a European business
school in Germany.
the guys are becoming less ambi- me to every
tious. They are getting satisfied –
Of course it is difficult to spend
though that doesn’t include me; tournament ’ a lot of time apart but it would
I am never satisfied. Fortunately
be much harder for me if she
there are some young players
was just following me to every
coming through. Karen Gregoryan is a good player.
tournament, looking me in the eye and saying you play
well or you play badly. I come from a family where both
On Working With Alex Wohl in parents are very independent – very motivation driven,
2009/10 very active – so it was kind of natural for me to look for
a partner like her.
Alex is a good friend of mine. He’s jovial. I’ve always liked
him as a person. He made me happy and he made me
Two years ago we moved back to Yerevan. My family is still
fight. He was not just a second but also a psychologist.
in Berlin and I try to navigate to get back there regularly.
Actually some of the variations we worked on I still use
to this day. I analysed a lot with him and did some valu-
able chess with him. Sometimes I would tell him, “OK Alex
I am not going to teach you about this position. I know
you have a different opinion.” We had some fights some-
times but we had a really good relationship. I enjoyed his
company. And the road trips were fantastic. Alex loves
nature as much as I do.

OCTOBER 2015  29
INTERVIEW
The Sinquefield Cup
Saint Louis is great and it’s fantastic to have chess at such
a level in the US. Generally the public is very excited. I
can see that chess is popular in the US and social media
is much more active here than in Europe. Every tourna-
ment in the United States gets much more coverage in my
opinion than anywhere else - people watching on Twitter.
I also prefer a tournament with crowds, like the Sinquefield
Cup not one just for internet, though when you play chess
you don’t really see the atmosphere much because you
are concentrating. In Armenia we have huge crowds
watching chess whenever there is a super-tournament.
My match against Kramnik in 2007 was insane – I have
never seen so many people watching chess. We had about
4000 people watching and there were people outside the
opera house waiting to get in.
The field here this year was very strong, of course, though
a year ago also it was a very strong event. However when
30  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
Left:
Levon was accompa-
nied in St Louis by his
fiancee, Australian
chessplayer Arianne
Caoilli
you have different players then I think there is more
excitement and we had lots of blood, which is good. Guys
like Wesley [So] play not so many super tournaments so
this is a big chance. I was fighting from the first game to
the last. I enjoyed my tournament because of that; I love
watching top games but I love to play much more.
Before the Sinquefield Cup I trained with Ashot and I also
had a good training session with Magnus. My Wattenscheid
and now Baden Baden team-mate Peter Nielsen invited
me. We share a long history as team-mates. Magnus and
I did physical sports, played some blitz, things like this.
You don’t really need to go crazy before a tournament.
They were asking me questions before the tournament
and I told them honestly that I came here to win. So I
didn’t have huge excitement after winning my first game;
I thought +4 would be needed to win the tournament.
I barely survived this game against Grischuk but I feel I
should have won against Giri because the position was
 LEVON ARONIAN

heavenly. That game really made me sad. Some players

World Championship Hopes
are brilliant defenders and maybe Giri is of that breed.
I am definitely not - I don’t like to defend, starting from
At the World Cup in Baku I will try my best to qualify for
move number one!
the Candidates tournament. This is a very different story
to the 2013 Tromso World Cup because there I was already
It always felt that I had a huge advantage against Hikaru
qualified by rating.
[Aronian’s key Round 7 win IR]. I know all the comput-
er’s assessments but during the game it didn’t feel like
The openings play a big role in a knock-out tournament.
I was making mistakes. So even if he exchanges pieces,
There are very few people that you can beat in the classi-
the time will come when my king will come to the queen-
cal phase. With guys of 2650 you may win with White but
side and his a5-pawn is going to feel very uncomfortable.
it’s not guaranteed and with Black if they want to make a
draw they’ll definitely do it.
I only was fairly sure that I would win the tournament
after the [penultimate] round. Before that game, against
I don’t mind playing rapids if I have to.
Vishy, I thought if I make a draw somebody can win two
games in a row – you never know. Against Vishy I went
So you are a good rapid player?
for a fight; it was an interesting game and he played well.
After I saw that everyone else had drawn I was confident
I am just a good player!
I would win the tournament.

Right:
A big smile as he
poses for a shot with
his fans

OCTOBER 2015  31
 Pawn
Endgames By IM Junta Ikeda

The theme for the studies in this issue is Back to Basics – Pawn Endgames,
studies where there are only the kings and pawns in the starting position.
Many of you are bound to be acquainted with the ideas of opposition,
outflanking and corresponding squares – but this is only the tip of the iceberg
in the fertile, all-encompassing world of pawn endgames. While theoretical
endgame knowledge is a plus here, often it is all about concrete calculation
– who will win the pawn race, how can I put my opponent in zugzwang, what
is the right path for the king to follow, should I push my pawn two squares or
only one here? In this issue, the stipulation is White to play and win in Studies
#1-#4, and White to play and draw in Studies #5 and #6. The first couple are a
warm-up for the experienced solvers; #1 (2P vs. 1P) is by Ukrainian composer
Mikhail Zinar, widely considered as the greatest expert in pawn endgames.
#2 by Adamson sees 1P vs. 1P, and the difficulty is cranked up a notch in #3
by Weenink (2P vs. 2P). #4 by Grigoriev, who specialised and pawn and rook-
and-pawn endgames, also sees a 1P vs. 1P situation but one that is much
more difficult to crack than #2. The final two studies are challenging – Wotawa
and Chekhover have set complex battles with multiple pawns on both sides
in motion, where White must be resourceful and find the narrow path to a
draw. Tackling these studies, one is reminded of Philidor’s saying – “Pawns are
the soul of chess.” Enjoy!

32  50 MOVES MAGAZINE

Back to Basics - Pawn Endgames
Solutions page 98

1. M.Zinar 2. H. Adamson 3. H. Weenink

Shakhmaty vs. SSSR, 1987 Chess Amatuer 1915 Tijdschrift v.d. KNSB, 1924

4. N. Gregoriev 5. A. Wotawa 6. V. Chekhover

Shakhmaty vs. SSSR, 1932 Deutsche Schachzeitung, Sovjetskaja Rossija, 1956
1962

OCTOBER 2015  33
INTERNATIONAL CHESS

Karjakin Wins
Chess Hunger
Games in
Baku
“If every tournament was like the World
Cup, I think I would be dead within 10
years.” Hikaru Nakamura

Report by GM Ian Rogers, Photography by Cathy Rogers

34  50 MOVES MAGAZINE

 WORLD CUP - BAKU
A
t f irst sight, the FIDE
World Cup is a replica
of Wimbledon, with 128
players competing for a
major prize through seven
knock-out rounds (though
without the strawberries and cream for
spectators).
The reality is much darker. The FIDE World Cup is
much closer in spirit to a chess Hunger Games,
where 128 individuals battle their way through
a month of combat involving chessboard and,
almost as importantly, chess clock. In tennis,
a player can make 50 unforced errors and still
win a match. In the chess Hunger Games, one
mistake may end your tournament.
Within three World Cup rounds, almost 90% of
players have made a mistake and been elimi-
nated. This, after all, is a tournament with only
one winner and 127 losers. One day you are
eating with friends, the next day they (or you)
are flying home and you eat alone. (Admittedly,
first round losers take home $4,800 to soften
the blow, but all expenses – travel to Baku, hotel
and food - must be borne by the players so
some players from non-European countries
finish only marginally ahead financially.)
The 2015 Chess Hunger Games took place in the
Azeri capital Baku, in the iconic and luxurious
Flame Towers, which sits on a hill high above
the city and has become a symbol of the city’s
oil-fuelled development since independence
from the USSR.
There were some notable absentees from
the tournament, not just Magnus Carlsen and
Viswanathan Anand who do not feel the need to
compete in an unforgiving World Championship
qualifier with only one prize higher than their
typical appearance fee.
However, although players from 45 countries
were present in Baku, plenty of chess strong-
holds did not manage a single qualifier, includ-
ing Scandinavia and Georgia, while Italy and the
Philippines had seen their top players defect to
the USA since the last World Cup and were now
unrepresented in Baku.
The playing hall, the ballroom of the Flame
Towers Hotel, offered perfect playing condi-
tions, and indeed all the accompanying facilities
surrounding the tournament were outstand-
ing. A large picture of independent Azerbaijan’s
first President Heydar Aliyev in the centre of the
playing room reminded the players that victory
at any cost was what was demanded.
Each round of the World Cup involves matches
with two classical games, and if the match is
tied 1-1 then pairs of tiebreakers at faster and
faster time limits are completed. Should the
match score reach 4-4 then one Armageddon
game is played; White has five minutes, Black
four, but if the Armageddon game is drawn,
White is eliminated from the tournament.
With most of the world’s best players com-
peting in Baku there was some quality chess
played, but the knowledge that one poor deci-
sion could result in a ticket home meant that
tension was high and blunders outnumbered
brilliancies. Here are some of the highlights and
lowlights of the fight for survival in Baku.
[Ed: See the PGN file for a selection of puzzles
from the games of each round.]
OCTOBER 2015  35
WORLD CUP

Round 1 Black should achieve from this 4

v 3 endgame. However, feeling no
danger, the 22-year-old Argentinian
With seed 1 playing seed 128, seed 2
carelessly played 34...Kf8 35.Rb4!
against seed 127, etc, upsets on the
Ke7?? and was shocked to discover
top boards were highly unlikely and
that his bishop was trapped on an
a bloodbath of seeds 65-128 ensued.
open board after 36.Ke1!.
Yet a few of the underdogs fought
bravely and a handful triumphed.
Perez pulled himself together enough
to find 36...Bxg4 37.Rxg4 Kf6 when
The biggest name to fall in the first
the position is objectively drawn but
round was Boris Gelfand, the immac-
the gradient of the game had begun
ulately dressed former world title
38...Nf4??? 39.Ng4 mate!
to swing in the Cuban GM’s favour
challenger outplayed in a rapid tie-
and Dominguez ground down his
breaker by a teenager from Chile in
The next game, pressing for a win
opponent in 101 moves. After such
jeans and a t-shirt, physically shaking
with an extra pawn, Vidit walked
disappointment, the tiebreak was just
through nerves.
into another mate and was soon on
a formality and Perez Ponsa was soon
an aeroplane to Qatar and then India.
flying home.
At least Gelfand, a former World Cup
winner, could afford himself a rueful
One player was within touching dis-
Max Illingworth, the sole Oceania
smile as he resigned his fourth and
tance of the second round (and a
representative in the World Cup,
final game to Cristobal Henriquez
huge upset win) when a moment of
was another who fought hard but
Villagra.
inattention cost him everything.
lacked the consistency of the 14th
seed, Indian number two Pentala
There was no smiling for World Cup
Harikrishna.
debutant Santosh Vidit after the
following disaster against Lazaro
Immediately after his loss, Illingworth
Bruzon.
admitted being slightly overawed:
“Physically I’m fine but I was cer-
The 21-year-old Indian, after drawing
tainly nervous and spent too much
1-1 in the classical part of his match
time in the first game double and
against the higher rated Cuban was
triple-checking my calculations.
pushing for advantage in the first
Nonetheless, I didn’t feel like an
tiebreaker, until he found the worst
outcast among these top players,
move on the board...
though I probably read a bit too much
into the top guys such as Nakamura
Federico Perez Ponsa had already con-
watching my game [midway through
vincingly beaten Lenier Dominguez
game 1].”
Perez in their first encounter and
a draw seems like the minimum
Illingworth’s annotations to his games

36  50 MOVES MAGAZINE


can be seen after his interview.
Round 2
After the second round it was already
clear that the winner of the chess
Hunger Games would not be a new
Katniss Everdeen, as the final female
player was eliminated, Hou Yifan
losing in rapid tiebreakers to home
favourite Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
(The other two female players,
Mariya Muzychuk and Deysi Cori
had gone out in the first round to
Michael Adams and Vladimir Kramnik
respectively.
The biggest shock of the second
round was the ejection of one of
the tournament favourites, Levon
Aronian at the hands of Alexander
Areshchenko. Aronian had been the
triumphant winner of the Sinquefield
Cup in Saint Louis little more than
a week before the World Cup and
needed to reach the World Cup final
to qualify for the 2016 Candidates
Tournament.
Areshchenko 29, was far from a soft
pairing; at one time he was placed
above Sergey Karjakin in Ukraine’s
Youth Olympiad team. However
Areshchenko had dropped dramat-
ically from his 2700+ peak, having
been forced to relocate his family
from the war-torn east of Ukraine to
the safer city of Lviv.
WORLD CUP
66...Nxg3 67.Nd5+
Missing chances in both classical
games, the first tiebreaker against
and now Black missed the stylish 67...
Areshchenko turned out to be the
end of Aronian’s Candidates dreams.
Ka4! 68.Nc3+ Ka5! 69.Kxa3 h4 when
the pawn queens. He played instead
Misplaying a good attack, Aronian
found himself a pawn down and was
67...Kc4 68.Nf4 h4
ground down by Areshchenko.
when Black’s advantage was still
Aronian-Areshchenko
enough to win in 101 moves.
Game 3, after White’s 62nd move
Playing Black in the return game,
Aronian never looked like winning
and in fact lost again.
Round 3
After round 3 the field was down to
just 16 players and some more big
names were not among them, includ-
ing the only Russians among the top
eight seeds, Vladimir Kramnik and
Black had been trying to bring his
Alexander Grischuk.
king safely to b3 without success for
some time but finally Areshchenko
One third round match went to
found the correct path...
Armageddon, the dramatic encounter
between Nakamura and the Russian
62...Nc3! 63.Nd4 Kc4 64.Nf5 Ne2!
who performed so well at the 2014
65.Ka2 Kb4 66.Ne3
World Rapid and Blitz Championship
in Dubai, Ian Nepomniachtchi.
The only hope since 66.Kb1 Kb3!
67.Ka1 a2 leads to mate after 68...
The Nakamura-Nepomniachtchi
Nd4, while 66.Ka1 merely delays the
match was a classic, both players
inevitable in view of 66...Kb3 67.Kb1
fighting back to level the contests
a2+ 68.Ka1 Ka3 69.Ne3 Nd4 70.Nc4+
when one game down with one to
Kb4! And now 71.Nd2 loses to 71...
play.
Nb3+ so Black cannot be prevented
from playing 71...Kb3 and 72...Nc2
mate.
OCTOBER 2015  37
WORLD CUP
Nepomniachtchi-Nakamura
Game 6, after White’s 40th move
Nepomniachtchi needs to win this
game to stay in the match but had
Nakamura played 40...N8b6! then
most likely the American would go
through to the fourth round within
a few moves.
38  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
Instead Nakamura played
40...e4?
Missing that after
41.Rd2!!
Black has just opened the d-file to his
own cost. The game continued
41...Rxd1 42.Rxd1 Nxe3+ 43.Kb1!
But now it turned out to be the open
c-file which was fatal for Black and
Nakamura was forced to resign after
43...Qd6 44.Rdc1 Nd5 45.Rc6 Qh2
46.R6c2 Qf4 47.dxe4 Qxe4 48.Ka1
Nce7 49.Qb7 Re3 50.b6 Re1 51.bxc7
Rxc1+ 52.Rxc1 Nc8 53.Rd1 1-0
Two blitz games followed, shared
1-1 with Nakamura bouncing back
Left:
Aronian fights an
uphill battle against
Areshchenko
after losing the first, which meant …
Armageddon!
Nakamura was Black in the deciding
Armageddon game and won comfort-
ably, but controversy broke out when
commentator Sergei Shipov’s obser-
vation that Nakamura had castled
with two hands was conveyed to
Nepomniachtchi.
Desperate to avoid elimination,
Nepomniachtchi submitted an official
protest, asking for Nakamura to be
penalised for his illegal act. All moves
must be made with one hand – and
this turned out be to be not the first
time in the match that Nakamura had
castled two-handedly.
Moreover, it was subsequently noted
by the Appeals Committee – though
only through a less than clear slow-
motion replay - that Nakamura in the

Armageddon game had moved his
rook first, also illegal under FIDE laws.
The infringement was so marginal
that it was hardly visible at normal
speed, so to blame Nepomniachtchi
or the arbiters for not seeing this, or
Nakamura for ‘cheating’ would be
ridiculous. It should be noted that
USCF rules, upon which Nakamura
would have been brought up, state
“When castling, the player may touch
either the king or the rook first.”
Nepomniachtchi also claimed that
Nakamura had also touched pieces
and then moved other pieces, but this
was a misapprehension – Nakamura
has the annoying habit of adjusting
a piece after he had moved, usually
before pressing the clock, though
occasionally afterwards (which is
poor etiquette).
Nepomniachtchi ’s appeal was
dismissed because he had not com-
plained at the time, yet the Russian
reasonably pointed out that with four
(!) arbiters watching the game, one of
them should have noticed, stopped
the clocks and applied a penalty.
Round 4
The two oldest players in the last 16,
Veselin Topalov and Peter Svidler,
were paired together and soon the
top seed found himself heading back
home.
Topalov was only one of three top
10 players to fail to survive the
fourth round. Caruana lost badly
to the only home player left in the
field, Mamedyarov, while Wesley So
blundered material against Maxime
Vachier-Lagrave and narrowly failed
to survive.
WORLD CUP
The match of the round was between
the two remaining Chinese players,
Ding Liren and Wei Yi, with 16-year-
old Wei needing all his Houdini skills
to progress to the next round.
Ding, the first Chinese player to reach
the top 10 since Wang Yue in 2010,
won the first classical game but his
teenage opponent bounced back –
but only just - to level the match.
Ding Liren - Wei Yi
Game 2, after White’s 48th move
Left:
“Castling“ as stated
in the rules of chess
should be done with one
hand not two, explains
Nepomniachtchi against
Nakamura
OCTOBER 2015  39
WORLD CUP

If Black sits tight with, e.g. ...Qe8-e7, it
is unlikely that White can make prog-
ress. Instead Ding looks for further
liquidation, but this allows Yi to free
his rook.
48...g5?! 49.hxg5 Qxg5 50.Rf3! Re7
51.Rf4 Qg6 52.Rf6 Qg5 53.Qf2 Kg7
54.Rxd6 h4 55.Kh3?!
55.gxh4 reaches a similar rook
endgame after 55...Qe5+ 56.Qg3+,
but one where White’s pawns are
more widely separated, offering
superior winning chances.
55...hxg3 56.Qf5
In choosing between 56.Qxg3 and
the text move, Wei seemed to forget
about his clock and played this move
with one second to spare!
56...Qxf5+ 57.exf5 Re4 58.Rg6+ Kf7
59.Rxg3 Rxb4
After 61...Ke8! Black’s king will block
the d pawn and a draw is likely.
62.Kg4 Kf6 63.Kf4 b4 64.Ke4 Rb8
65.Kd5?!
65.Rb3 is the computer win, with
the point that 65...Rb5 can be met
by 66.d7! Ke7 67.Rd3 Kd8 68.f6 and
White’s pawns are just fast enough.
65...b3 66.d7 b2 67.Rb3! R xb3
68.d8Q+ Kxf5
Suddenly the win is not so simple;
in fact tablebases say that Black can
now draw with best play. However
at 30 seconds per move White is
near certain to win eventually as it
is almost impossible to ensure that
the rook will have a safe square on
the b-file.
options for the queen, was necessary.
73.Qb1! Kg5 74.Kc4! Rb8 75.Qg1+
Now the rook is lost and, though it
takes quite a few checks to prove this,
Wei is up to the task.
75...Kf5 76.Qc5+ Kg4 77.Qd4+ Kf3
78.Qf6+ Ke4 79.Qe6+ Kf3 80.Qf5+
1-0
The pair of 10 minute tiebreak games
between Wei and Ding were decisive.
The first saw the prettiest move of
the tournament – sadly not original
and even more sadly not decisive.
Wei Yi - Ding Liren
Game 5
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 c6 4.Nf3 d5
5.Bb3 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Bxd2+ 7.Qxd2
dxe4 8.Nxe5 0-0 9.dxe4 Qe7 10.Qf4!
Nh5 11.Bxf7+ Kh8 (D)

69.Qd7+ Kg5 70.Qe7+ Kg4 71.Qe4+

Kg3 72.Qg6+ Kh4?

60.Rd3! Rc4 61.d6 Rc8? This turns out to be a fatal square.

72...Kf3!, reducing the checking 12.Qg3!!

40  50 MOVES MAGAZINE

 Top: Playing hall for the tournament
Below: Fabiano chatting with Ian after this game

OCTOBER 2015  41
WORLD CUP

The idea behind 10.Qf4 with the point If Black avoids the swap of queens
that 12...Nxg3? loses to 13.Ng6+! hxg6
Quarter-finals via 21...Qa7 he will lose his a5 pawn
14.hxg3+. This idea has twice been (though this may have been a better
With players just two matches from
played by Willy Hendrik, the Dutch practical chance).
a place in the 2016 Candidates tour-
IM author of the controversial book
nament, caution began to dominate
‘Move First, Think Later’. 22.Bxa8 Qxc3 23.bxc3 Rxa8 24.Nc6
the classical games.
Bd8 25.Nxd8 Rxd8 26.f3
Ding used only 9 seconds on his reply,
The pre-tournament favourite and
so presumably the idea was known to Materially Black is not doing badly at
second seed, Hikaru Nakamura,
him as well. all; in many positions a bishop and
played an uninspired match against
knight can hold their own against a
the World Cup’s most in-form player
12...Rxf7 13.Nxf7+ Qxf7 14.Qd6 Be6 rook and two pawns.
Pavel Eljanov and was the first to fall
15.Nc3 Nd7
in the Quarter Quells.
However here Black’s minor pieces
The upshot of White’s opening trick is are misplaced and Eljanov judged that
Eljanov - Nakamura
that he has a minimal material advan- White’s position is close to winning.
Game 1, after White’s 19th move
tage but Black’s active pieces ensure
that Ding can maintain the balance. 26...Rc8 27.Ra3 Bg6 28.Kf2 Rb8
29.Rd2 f6
16.0-0-0 Re8 17.Rhf1 Bc4 18.Rfe1
Ne5 19.b3 Ba6 20.Kb1 h6 21.f3 Nf4 Accompanied by a draw offer, which
22.Rd2 Kh7 23.Red1 Re6 24.Qb8 Qf6 certainly surprised Eljanov.
25.Na4 Be2 26.Rc1 b6 27.Nc3 Ba6
28.Rcd1 Nc4 29.bxc4 Qxc3 30.Qxf4 30.Raa2 Rb3 31.Rab2! Rxc3 32.Rb5
Qb4+ 31.Ka1 Qc3+ Draw Bc2 33.Rxa5 Nc7 34.Ra7 f5 35.a5

The match concluded with a crazy 10 and Nakamura had no defence

minute game where Wei stood on the against the advance of the a-pawn
brink of defeat for most of the game and resigned 23 moves later.
- as well as frequently being down to
Black is solid, if passive, and after 19...
his final seconds - but the teenager Nakamura never looked like winning
Rd8 20.Rac1 Bxc5 21.dxc5 (21.Qxc5
refused to give Ding any easy wins. the return encounter and the
meets the same reply) Na6 any White
Eventually Ding over-pressed and American was soon leaving Baku.
advantage would be minimal.
managed to lose, perhaps the unluck-
iest victim of the Hunger Games Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was a semi-
Nakamura preferred to hang on to his
lottery. finalist at the previous World Cup in
bishop pair but after
Tromso 2013 but here he he meekly
Refer to Round 4 Baku puzzles PGN fell to the top seed remaining in the
19...Na6?! he was hit by 20.Nxb7!
tournament, Anish Giri.
Qxb7 21.Bxc6 Qc7

42  50 MOVES MAGAZINE

 Top: Lu Shanglai put up tremendous resistance against Topalov
Below: Wei Yi beats his Chinese counter part Ding Liren to advance

OCTOBER 2015  43
WORLD CUP

compensation! Well, as you can see At first sight White’s win is not so easy
Giri - Vachier-Lagrave
we found such a position!” because 68.Ra6 Kg2 69.Ke7? allows
Game 2
69...Rxf7+! 70.Kxf7 Kxh2 with a draw.
10.dxc5! Nxc3 11.Bxc3 Bxc3 12.bxc3
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.e3!?
Nd7 68.Rb2!!

Giri is not interested in seeing Vachier-

Giving up a pawn is necessar y Suddenly it turns out that Black is in
Lagrave’s Grunfeld Defence.
because after 12...bxc5 13.Qa4 Black zugzwang, unable to both keep his
has serious problems, with Rfd1, king close to the h2 pawn and keep
4...0-0 5.Be2 b6 6.0-0 Bb7 7.Nc3 d5
Rab1 and Qh4 in the air. his rook on the f-file (since 68...Rf5
8.cxd5 Nxd5
loses to 69.Kg7).
13.cxb6 axb6 14.Qd4 Qc7
So far the players have followed the
68...Ra4 69.Rb6 1-0
game Dubov-Vachier-Lagrave from
In a typical Grunfeld, Black’s pawn
the Qatar Open in 2014. There White
sacrifice would be good enough for Only the next day did the players
played 9.Qb3 but achieved nothing
rough equality but here, without a realise that White’s win was not as
after 9...e6 followed by ...Nd7 and
dark squared bishop on g7, Black smooth as they had thought.
...c5.
has no real hope of winning one of
White’s isolated queenside pawns (Diagram of position after White’s
9.Bd2!? c5?!
and must simply defend. 50th move)

Too impetuous, but Giri was confident

15.Rfb1 Ra5 16.Qb4 e6 17.Qe7 Qd8
Vachier-Lagrave would play this way,
18.Qxd8 Rxd8
explaining “Maxime is a very strong
player with a great sense of dynam-
40 moves later Vachier-Lagrave was
ics, but he often likes giving away
still fighting hard but the extra pawn
pawns without any real compensa-
was by now on the seventh rank.
tion. He pushes ...c5 in all Grunfeld
positions, wherever he can. That’s
typical for him, though he usually
manages to hold afterwards.”

“While discussing with one of my

seconds what I was going to play
Here Vachier-Lagrave played the
today, I pointed out a position I
obvious
wouldn’t wish to play. In that position
he would have compensation for the
50...Kd3 and after 51.Kf3 Kc2 52.Ra1
pawn, but he likes giving away pawns
Rxb4 53.Ra5 the Black king could not
even without compensation. Then
get back in time, leading eventually to
we thought - let’s look for the posi-
the previous diagram.
tions where he wouldn’t have such

44  50 MOVES MAGAZINE


What Vachier-Lagrave only realised
as he began the process of rebook-
ing his air ticket back to Paris was that
the remarkable
50...Ke3!! would have held the game.
The point is that after 51.Re1+ Kd3!
(51...Kd4 loses to 52.Kf3! f5 53.Kg3!!,
headed for g5) 52.Kf3 Rxb4 53.Rd1+
(otherwise the Black king will return
in time) 53...Kc2 54.Rd5 Rb3+ 55.Kg2
h4 56.Rh5 Kd3! and once again the
Black king saves the day.
A tiny difference, but one which might
have seen Vachier-Lagrave into the
semi-finals rather than Giri. As Svidler
commented “People start to lose
their minds.”
Svidler himself finally ended the won-
derful run of Wei Yi, though it took
the Russian six games to finally kill
off the challenge from the Chinese
teenager.
After his tiebreak victories against
Vovk and Ding, Wei had seemed like
an indestructible Terminator in tie-
breakers, capable of surviving impos-
sible adversity on the board or the
clock.
Although Svidler did a wonderful
job of shutting down Wei’s tactical
strength - Wei barely surviving the
opening in many games – somehow
Svidler could never turn his advan-
tages into a full point.
WORLD CUP
advance, but again Wei finds a way
Svidler-Wei Yi
to stay in the game.
Game 3, after Black’s 22nd move
38...b4! 39.f5+ Kxf5! 40.Rxd7 Kxe5
41.Kd3 Kf6 42.Rd5 Ke6 43.Rb5 Kf6
44.Ke4 Be7 45.Kf4 Bd6+ 46.Ke4 Be7
47.Kf4 Bd6+ 48.Kg4 Ke6
Svidler had sacrificed the exchange
and now calculates a clever forcing
sequence w hich clar i f ies his
advantage.
49.Kh5 Now Black draws immedi-
23.Nxa7! Nxe3 24.Nxc8 Nxg2
ately but it turns out that even the
25.Ne7+ Kf7 26.Nxg6! Kxg6 27.Rg1
more sophisticated 49.Kf3 Be7 50.Kf4
Rxa2 28.Rxg2+ Kf7 29.Ne5+ Kf8
Bd6+ 51.Ke4 Kd7 52.Kd5 Kc7 53.Kc4
30.Ng6+ Kf7 31.Nf4! Rxb2+
Kc6 54.Rh5 Bf8 55.Rf5 Be7 56.Rf7 Kd6
57.Rh7 (D) which seems to win a pawn
Even Wei’s tactical vision was not
is not good enough because after
quite enough to see 31...b5! with the
point that 32.Nxe6 is met by 32...
Nh5!!.
32.Ke3 Bf8
The best chance as now 32...b5
33.Nxe6 is good for White.
33.Bc4 Rb6 34.Nxe6 Rxe6 35.e5 Nd7
36.f4 b5 37.Bxe6+ Kxe6 38.Rd2!
This looks grim for Black, with the
connected passed pawns ready to
57...Bg5! 58.Kxb4 Ke5! 59.Rf7 Ke4
OCTOBER 2015  45
WORLD CUP
White can make no progress, e.g.
60.Kc5 Bf4 61.Kc6 Kf3 62.Kd5 Kg3
63.Ke4 Bd2 64.Rf3+ Kh4 and the draw
is secure.
49...Kd7! 50.Kxh6 Kc6 51.Rf5 b3
52.Rf1 Kc5 53.h4 b2 54.Rb1 Be5
55.Kg6 Kc4 56.Rxb2 Draw
After five hard-fought draws, came
the decisive sixth and final game of
the match. Svidler explained, “As the
match progressed, it became more
evident that we were not in control
of what was going on. People are
tired and the quality dropped signifi-
cantly. It’s kind of ironic that the game
I won, strategically the position was
just awful. I got very lucky in the final
one.”
The final semi-finalist was Sergey
Karjakin who, in front of a large crowd
hoping for a home success, stopped
Mamedyarov’s run.
After a shaky first game and a short
draw in the second, Karjakin was
always in control of the tiebreakers,
the first two being drawn but then
the Russian winning both of the 10
minute games for a 4-2 victory.
46  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
Chess
in Azerbaijan
Taking time out from putting players
on planes back to their home coun-
tries and finding hotel rooms for
others staying longer than expected,
the organising committee directors
Murad Isgandarli and Joanna Golas
sat down with Ian Rogers to explain
the position of chess in Azerbaijan.
“ The mos t popular spor t s in
Azerbaijan are wrestling, football,
chess, then boxing. We are in third
place – it is not bad.
“If you talk with our locals, even take
some people from the street, basi-
cally everybody plays chess or played
chess. Often my close friends tell me
“Yes, I played chess when I was young
but then I had to choose if I want to go
to the university or play chess.” In our
IT department for the tournament we
have former chessplayers; one who
was the last USSR Youth Champion
for his age group.
“You can walk around the city, espe-
cially on the boulevard, and can find
people sitting on the sides of the
fountains playing chess – chess or
backgammon.
Women don’t play sports so much in
Azerbaijan; fitness, gym, aerobics –
the types of sports to keep you fit.
Gymnastics is also quite popular
– Azerbaijan is quite good at women’s
g ymnas tics. One problem for
women’s chess in Azerbaijan is that
women who play reach a certain age
and then they start a family. Women
in Azerbaijan are not very sporty but
it will come. Society is changing.”
“Most of the people in Azerbaijan
like chess and they respect it. People
from the hotel, especially the man-
agement, respected chess; that’s
why they were ready to help us to
organise the World Cup. The Flame
Towers is an iconic building so we
wanted to hold it here and for the
hotel also hosting the World Cup is a
great honour, not some minor event
or congress.
“In 2009 the President of Azerbaijan
signed a decree, starting a chess
development programme for the
whole country. It is a special pro-
gramme for developing chess in
the regions – we have a network of
chess schools, more than 70 based
in the city centres of the regions and
under the protection of the Minister
for Education. We have a lot of people
in the regions who have played and
are qualified to teach chess.
“ We will star t working on the
Olympiad as soon as we finish with
the World Cup. We have the venue
already, the Crystal Hall which is a
great place. If you realise that we
have only 128 players at the World
Cup yet there are so many difficulties,

so many organisational issues. It’s
scaring us but we will manage [the
Olympiad in 2016]. We need more
people, more professionals to help
us, more chess lovers, more volun-
teers. Most of the volunteers here
were also volunteers for the recent
European Games. We have a lot of
ideas and are planning some crazy
events for the Olympiad.”
The Armenians
That players from Armenia com-
peted in Baku at all was a tribute
to the sincere efforts of the World
Cup organisers as well as the will-
ingness of the Armenian players to
reciprocate.
Citizens from Armenia or of Armenian
origin are normally not granted visas
for Azerbaijan but the Azeris when
agreeing to host the World Cup (and
the Olympiad in 2016) agreed to make
it possible for Armenians to compete.
The organisers declared that the vis-
iting Armenians would be completely
secure, though Aronian took no
chances, bringing his own bodyguard.
Speaking before the tournament
Aronian had said, “Surely it’s not very
easy for we chess players to do our
best, because our countries are in
conflict. However I get along well with
Azeri players and Armenian artists
and musicians also go to Azerbaijan.
I will perform as a person who wants
to bring peace to the region, showing
that I respect the neighbouring
country.”
Shortly before the World Cup began,
relations between Azerbaijan and
Armenia became more tense, with
the Azerbaijan government declaring
that negotiations over the disputed
territory of Nagorno-Karabakh have
failed and they may need to turn to
military force.
Add to that travelling to a city which
saw pogroms against Armenians little
more than a quarter of a century
ago and there was reason for the
Armenian players to be nervous.
The organisers had expended plenty
of effort assuring the Armenian Chess
Federation that their Grandmasters
would be safe in Baku and were true
to their word, with security screening
for all World Cup audience members
and positioning of the Armenian
tables as far from any spectators
as possible. More than that, the
World Cup organisers attempted, as
much as was possible, to make the
Armenians feel welcome.
Before the event, the Armenian
players had expected to confine
themselves to the Flame Towers Hotel
for the duration of the tournament.
The players stuck together, creating a
mini cheer squad to support Gabriel
Sargissian when his first round match
against Mateusz Bartel went to an
WORLD CUP
Armageddon finish. Sargissian won,
and the celebrations among his sup-
porters were apparent.
Within a few days some of the
Armenian players had enough con-
fidence to take walks in the park
nearby the hotel. The park was not a
complete escape from the worries of
the world – it contained hundreds of
plaques commemorating the (mostly)
young Azeri soldiers who died in
1992 fighting against Armenia over
Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Baku World Cup turned out to
be a disaster (chess-wise) for the
Armenian contingent – including
the US players of Armenian origin,
who also required a special visa to
be allowed to participate. All the
Armenians were knocked out by the
second round, perhaps showing that,
despite the best efforts of the Azeri
organisers, it was possible to feel
safe in Baku and yet not comfort-
able enough to perform at maximum
strength.
Nonetheless, on his final day in
Baku, Aronian went for a tour along
the waterfront and into the old
town of Baku. When your World
Championship chances have been
lost for two years, why not live dan-
gerously and have some fun?
OCTOBER 2015  47
WORLD CUP

Top: The Armenian team before their starting games.

Below: The teams arrive for the opening ceremony

48  50 MOVES MAGAZINE

 WORLD CUP

feed televising those games was not Whether they are necessary or effec-
Anti-cheating delayed. tive is another question; no doubt
when another lower rated player like
At the Baku World Cup, the FIDE
So spectators could watch moves via Sandu starts scoring well, they will be
Anti-Cheating Commission intro-
the live television feed and even see deemed insufficient and new mea-
duced what were correctly described
a game finishing, while the commen- sures introduced.
as unprecedented anti-cheating
tators were explaining moves from
measures.
15 minutes earlier. It was amateur- As Nakamura tweeted: “It’s a sad day
ish at best, enormously frustrating for chess when cheating has reached
While ACP President and tourna-
for spectators at worst. the point of no watches and pens
ment commentator Emil Sutovsky
being allowed.”
described the measures as sensible
Just to confuse the picture further,
and not draconian, some players, and
players who suspected their oppo- Giri was more practical. “If they
many spectators wondered if they
nent of cheating could no longer remove one way of cheating, they
had been properly thought through.
quietly ask the arbiter to keep an eye will allow another one. I am not
on their opponent. Any accusation worried and don’t suspect anyone.
At the World Cup, watches, as well as
had now to be made in writing – an At a tournament like Dortmund it is
mobile phones, were treated as elec-
enormous distraction during a game very easy to listen to the commen-
tronic devices and banned from the
- and to further discourage any alle- tators backstage or bring your own
playing hall. Pens could be inspected
gations, two false accusations would device. But I don’t think any one of
and the organisers requested that
mean a ban for the accuser. the top players does that – we don’t
players use the official pens pro-
live on anti-cheating regulations, we
vided. (As usual at World Cups now-
These new measures are a direct live on trust.”
adays, players and spectators were
response to the Sandu case from
scanned electronically before enter-
the 2015 European Women ’s
ing the playing hall.)
Championship in Georgia, where
Natalia Zhukova, without any evi-
Any player who left the playing hall,
dence, made cheating allegations
to use the toilet or to smoke, could be
against the tournament leader
subject to scanning on their return
Mihaela Sandu. Despite the con-
and 5 players each round were ran-
tinuing absence of any evidence
domly chosen for scans at the end of
apart from Sandu’s 5/5 start to the
their games.
tournament, Zhukova - and sur-
prisingly many others - still main-
Most controversially, several games
tain that Sandu must have cheated
each round had their transmission
somehow, and that paranoia has
delayed by 15 minutes. While an
manifested itself in the new anti-
anti-cheating measure also used
cheating measures.
at Dortmund, here it was rendered
ineffective by the fact that the video

OCTOBER 2015  49
WORLD CUP

11...exd4!? 12.cxd4 Nd7 immediately 20.Ng4 I have the

Semi-finals typical idea 20...Bc3! gaining a tempo
Svidler seems to have adopted and after 21.Bd2 Bxd2 22.Qxd2 Nf6
For three of the four players, these
this unusual version of the Zaitsev 23.Nxf6+ Qxf6 24.b4, maybe I am
were the real finals, since the winners
system after it was used against slightly worse but it is playable,” said
would qualify for the 2016 Candidates
him in Gibraltar in January by the Svidler.
tournament. Only Anish Giri had pre-
young Icelandic player Gudmundur
qualified (thanks to his high average
Kjartansson and he subsequently Meanwhile on Twitter, Radjabov was
rating throughout 2015).
used it without troubles against Yu commenting, “It’s funny that so far
Yangyi and Motylev. “I have spent a Giri is following my own preparation
The Svidler-Giri semi-final was match-
lot of time on this line and I am not for my first game against Svidler [in
ing two players undefeated so far in
convinced that it equalises but [under round 3]!”
the tournament – in fact Giri was on
the circumstances] it seemed better
a non-losing streak of over 40 games
than the alternatives,” said Svidler. 20...Nb6
– but one bad day meant elimination
for the Dutchman.
13.Nf1 Na5 14.Bc2 Bf6 15.Rb1 “By now I realised that I would have
to give up one of my bishops,” said
Giri - Svidler “ The most dangerous move for Svidler, “but I felt that if I have to give
Game 2
Black,” said Svidler. “In fact the whole up my dark-squared bishop I will be
system is strategically very danger- more or less lost because his bishop
A surprise for Svidler. “Giri has usually
ous for Black.” will come to b2 and I will get mated.”
played the closed openings against
me, so after 1.e4 I was sitting there
15...c5 16.d5 Nc4 17.b3 Nce5 21.Ng4 Bxg4
wishing I had at least made a plan for
18.N3h2 Ng6 19.Ng3 Bc8
1.e4,” admitted Svidler.
“By now I had only 45 minutes left,”
said Svidler. “I have spent [a lot of
1...e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6
time] analysing this line but it would
5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3 d6
have been nice to remember what I
9.h3 Bb7 10.d4 Re8 11.Nbd2
had written in my notes!”

In contrast, Giri had his first serious

pause for thought only on 21.Ng4,
and even then for only eight minutes.

22.hxg4 h6 23.Nf5

“This looks tremendous for White

20.Rf1
as Black’s counterplay is a long way
away,” admitted Svidler.
“Played more or less instantly. If

50  50 MOVES MAGAZINE


23...Ne7! 24.Ne3!?
“He decided to keep the knights on
the board, but 24.g3 Nxf5 25.gxf5
was also possible,” said Svidler.
24...b4! 25.g3 a5 26.Kg2!?
“He has a tremendous amount of
choice,” said Svidler, “so he began
to use a lot of time. If he had played
26.a4!? I was not sure how I was sup-
posed to react. Anish feared 26...bxa3
but after 27.Bxa3 I think this would be
much easier for White to control than
the position he reached in the game.”
26...a4
“Here he had another long think,”
said Svidler. “If he allows my rook to
reach a2 it will be difficult for him to
give mate, which will probably require
playing f4.”
27.bxa4!? Qd7 28.Qd3?!
“After this it will be hard to go back.
Anish said he was thinking about
28.g5!? Bxg5 29.f4 Bf6 30.e5 but he
couldn’t make it work,” explained
Svidler. “My big advantage was that
for the remainder of the game,
almost every move I make will be
an only move, whereas White has 5
options at every turn!
“If he wants to limit the damage he
can play 28.a3! e.g. 28...Nxa4 29.Bxa4
Rxa4 30.axb4 Rxb4 31.Rxb4 cxb4
32.Bd2 when the b-pawn can be a
weakness. This was a way to make
sure that White is never worse.”
28...Ng6
29.Nf5?
“If 29.a3! I have the tremendous move
29...c4! 30.Nxc4 Nxc4 31.Qxc4 Qxg4
but then 32.Bd1! is enough to force
a draw after 32...Nh4+ 33.Kh2 Nf3+
34.Kg2,” said Svidler.
29...Nxa4 30.Bxa4
“He offered a draw here,” said Svidler,
“but this is obviously the best position
I have had in this game so far and if
I don’t see [a mate for him] I should
continue!”
30...Rxa4 31.Rh1 Ne7!
“The last important moment of the
game,” said Svidler. “Once the knights
come off it will be much easier for me
to defend the kingside. If I play 31...
WORLD CUP
Rxa2 then after 32.g5 hxg5 33.Qf3-
h5-h7-h8! is a real threat.”
32.g5
Played after only a minute and a half;
“I guess he missed something,” said
Svidler. “If 32.Bxh6!? Nxf5 33.gxf5
Ra3! 34.Rb3 Rxb3 35.axb3 gxh6
36.Rxh6 Qe7! and the attack stops,
although the win may take some
time.”
32...hxg5
33.Ne3
“Perhaps he thought he could give
mate with 33.Nxe7+ Qxe7 34.e5 but
after 34...Qxe5! I just collect all the
[pawns],” said Svidler.
33...Rxa2 34.Bd2 Ng6 35.Nf5 Ne5!
“My original plan was to play 35...c4!
36.Qf3 Rxd2 37.Qh5 Nh4+! 38.gxh4
Rxe4 (I looked at 38...g6! 39.Nh6+
Kg7 40.Qf3 but now I see that 40...
Rd3! wins on the spot.) 39.hxg5 Rxf2+
OCTOBER 2015  51
WORLD CUP
but then I saw 40.Kg1!!,” explained
Svidler. “Though probably here even
40...Rg4+! wins.”
Svidler’s calculations were not quite
correct - in this line 41.Ng3!! mirac-
ulously holds the game and forces
Black to take a perpetual check after
41...Rxg3+ 42.Kxf2 Qf5+ 43.Kxg3
Be5+ 44.Kg2 Qc2+.
36.Qe2 g6
37.Nh6+
“I was in a state of blind panic when
I saw that he could play 37.Bxg5!!??,”
admitted Svidler, “because if 37...Bxg5
38.Qxa2 gxf5 39.f4 and the fight con-
tinues. However then I spotted 37...
Rxe2! 38.Bxf6 Rxf2+! 39.Kg1 Rh2!!
After I found ...Rh2 I took a deep
breath!.”
37...Kg7 38.Nf5+
“There is nothing else he can do,” said
Svidler. “If 38.Rh2 he has no threats;
I can even play 38...g4 followed by
52  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
...Nf3 and all of my pieces come in.” for tragedy to strike in an extraordi-
nary manner.
38...Kg8 39.Nh6+ Kg7 40.Nf5+ gxf5
41.Qh5 Ng6 0-1 Karjakin - Eljanov
Game 6, after White’s 64th move
“I have reached the time control and
he has just one check,” said Svidler.
The rematch the next day was a non-
event; Svidler succeeded in taking
queens off the board by move ten
and did nothing until Giri offered a
draw on move 51. Giri’s final tweet
summed up most players’ World Cup
experience; “Was getting lucky, until I
no longer was...”
The second semi-final was a heart-
Black first task is to create a passed
breaker for the player of the World
pawn on the queenside and he did
Cup, Pavel Eljanov.
so with
Using the same tactics employed by
64...a5! 65.Be1 Ke6?!
Rustam Kasimdzhanov to stop the
Topalov freight train in Libya 2004 – a
Not spoiling anything but Black had
KO event where Topalov had started
a straightforward win with the direct
with 9.5/10 – Karjakin hung on to draw
65...Bb3! 66.Kxd3 Bxa4 67.Bf2 and
with Black and took a quick draw with
now 67...Bb5+! when White can only
White in the classical games, to force
choose between 68.Kc3 Ke4! followed
a rapid tiebreaker.
by ...Kf3xg3 and 68.Ke3 a4 69.Be1 a3
70.Bc3 a2 when Black will win slowly
Eljanov still held the upper hand
but surely by pushing his b-pawn,
after winning the first rapid game but
bringing his king over to the queen-
Karjakin bounced back immediately,
side and then distracting White’s
as he had done against Onischuk
pieces with a well-timed ...h4.
earlier in the World Cup.
66.Bc3 Kf5 67.Be1 Kf6 68.Bd2 Kg6
A one move blunder cost Eljanov the
69.Bc3 Kf5??
first 10 minute game with White, but
he then comprehensively outplayed
Karjakin in the return match-up, only

Having gained some 10 second incre-
ments, Eljanov is now ready to play
70...Bb3 and win as in the previous
note.
Unfor tunately at this moment
Karjakin called over the arbiter and
indicated that he would play 70.Be1
after which the position will have
appeared three times with the same
person to move.
After the players and the arbiter
replayed the game on an adja-
cent board, a devastated Eljanov
had to accept the draw, ending his
Candidates hopes. Nonetheless, the
Ukrainian still found the strength
to tweet, “It’s untrue to call Sergey
Karjakin’s victory undeserved. Chess
is the most fair sport.”
Most were more inclined to agree
with Nakamura’s opinion, contradict-
ing Carlsen, that, “It would be insane
to consider this [sort of KO tourna-
ment] as a World Championship.”
Final
‘Those whom the Gods
wish to destroy, they
first make mad.’
The four game final proved to be the
epitome of a Hunger Games finale,
with exhaustion and blunders prev-
alent. Peter Svidler seemed to have
the final in his keeping by outplay-
ing Karjakin in the first game and
then exploiting a terrible blunder by
Karjakin in the second.
“Seems like I used the limit of all the
luck I had!” was Karjakin’s summary
after falling behind 0-2. FIDE officials,
including the FIDE President Kirsan
Iljumzhinov began arriving in Baku,
looking to witness the last rites.
However Karjakin and the match
wasn’t finished yet – Svidler, just
moves away from a 3-0 victory, blun-
dered in the third game and was
then ground down in a depressing
endgame in the fourth and final clas-
sical game.
Having survived his fourth must-win
game for the tournament, Karjakin
won the first tiebreaker and was then
in a position to need only to draw to
take the title.
He failed, Svidler winning the next
two games to have another game
WORLD CUP
with the White pieces where he
needed only a draw. Once again
the player leading the match failed
to hold. Svidler’s distress and tired-
ness was becoming more and more
evident while Karjakin, at least exter-
nally, appeared to be calmer and
more able to concentrate.
The first blitz game was a new disas-
ter for Svidler. Having found a cre-
ative attack in a Marshall Gambit,
the older man was up an exchange
and with 41 seconds to 4 when he
blundered a rook for nothing and
resigned immediately.
The next game saw a dispirited
Svidler create some chances but
Karjakin held firm and won when
Svidler pushed too hard. The final
score of 6-4 was very harsh on Svidler
but the winner of the 2015 World Cup
turned out to be the come-back kid
Sergey Karjakin.
Svidler- Karjakin
Game 1
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 e6 4.0-0 Be7
5.d3 0-0 6.Nbd2 c5 7.e4 Nc6 8.Re1
b5 9.exd5 Nxd5!?
OCTOBER 2015  53
54  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
A fairytale event for Eljanov but tragically cut short in dramatic style
 WORLD CUP

13.Bg5 f6 play 16.d4!” said Svidler. 16...bxc3?!

“Based on a miscalculation,” said
Passed over without comment by Svidler.
Svidler, but after 13...h6! 14.Bxe7
Qxe7 it is unlikely that White can make 16...cxd4 17.cxd4 exd4, keeping the b
anything of the weakened c5 square, file closed, was far stronger.
so the position remains equal. Later
Black will begin to regret the weaken- 17.bxc3 cxd4 18.cxd4 Nxd4
ing involved in playing ...f6.
Played extremely quickly by Karjakin,
14.Bd2 e5 15.Rc1 who thought for 11 minutes on 15...
Rf7, 4 on 16...bxc3 and then used only
“A perfectly healthy option. Sergey seconds for his next three moves,
has played a number of games after believing that he had found a forced
9...exd5 which is a different kettle of draw .
fish,” said Svidler.
However on 18...exd4 19.Qb3! is again
10.Ne4 very strong, e.g. 19...Rb8 20.Nfg5!!
fxg5 21.Nc5! and Black is losing
“White is supposed to play 10.a4 b4 material.
11.Nc4,” said Svidler, “but both sides
are very solid and I honestly don’t 19.Nxd4 exd4
know what White is supposed to be
doing here. In playing 10.Ne4 I was
15...Rf7?!
hoping for something sharper.”

A subtle move, protecting the bishop

10...Bb7 11.c3 a6
on b7 in some lines, but the rook
proves to be awkwardly placed when
“I thought that the easiest way for
the position blows open. “15...Rc8,
for Black to play 11...h6!, to cut out
taking the c5 square under control,
Bg5” said Svidler. “I wasn’t sure
was worrying me a great deal,” said
what I would do because if 12.d4
Svidler. “I am not sure what to do
cxd4 13.Nxd4 Nxd4 14.Qxd4 Qc7 I
next. If I play 16.d4 then after 16...
think Black has a small but tangible
cxd4 17.cxd4 Nxd4 18.Nxd4 exd4 I
advantage.”
never have Nc5.” 20.Qb3!

12.a4 b4
16.d4! “He thought I had to play 20.Nc5,”
said Svidler, “and then 20...Bxc5
“12...h6 was still playable, “whereas
“There are other options but it’s clear 21.Rxc5 Nc3! and we can go home, -
now I started to become interested.”
that if I can play 16.d4 then I should all the pieces will come off and it will

OCTOBER 2015  55
WORLD CUP

be a four rook endgame with equal Rd6

Karjakin-Svidler
material.”
Game 5, after Black’s 66th move

20...Rb8?!

“Sergey thought he was better now,”

said Svidler. The alternative 20...
Qd7 may have been better but after
21.Ba5! Black is under huge pressure.

21.Rb1!

“Suddenly he is almost in zugzwang,”

said Svidler. “He can’t connect the
“If 25...Rdd7, 26.Qc4 wins also,
rooks because 21...Rf8 runs into
though I was thinking about 26.Re1
22.Bf4!.” Black, who had held the upper hard
Qd6 27.Qxb7!? (27.Bb4! is the clear-
for much of the game before allow-
est win I.R.) 27...Rxb7 28.Re8+ Rf8
21...Qd7 22.Rec1! ing Karjakin to win a pawn, seems to
29.Bxd5+ Rbf7 30.Rxf8+ Kxf8 31.Bb4!
have set up an unbreakable blockade.
and maybe White is winning anyway,”
“I can win the exchange with However Karjakin finds one last way
said Svidler.
22.Ng5!?,” said Svidler, “but after 22... for White to play for a win...
fxg5 23.Bxd5 Bxd5 24.Qxb8+ Rf8, I
Svidler’s final conclusion was true,
might even be worse.” 67.Kb2 Be6 68.Ka3 Bd5
but he was fortunate he did not have
to choose which line to play as he had
22...Qe6? Here or next move Svidler could force
missed 29...Kh8! after which Black
a draw with 68...g5! when White must
turns the tables.
“I couldn’t find a forced win after 22... back-pedal with 69.Bd8 f4 70.Bxg5
h6,” admitted Svidler, “even though fxg3 71.Be3 g2 when the passed g
26.Qc4!
af ter 23.Nc5 Bxc5 24.Rxc5 Nc3 pawn prevents any winning attempts
25.Bxc3 dxc3 26.Rxc3 he is completely by White.
Karjakin admitted to overlooking this
tied up. At some point he might be
when he played 22...Qe6.
able to play ...Bxg2, though of course 69.Kb4 Be6 70.Bd8! Bd5 71.Ka5 Be6
I should be winning somehow.” 72.Ka6 Bc8+ 73.Ka7 Be6 74.Bg5 Bd7
26...Nc3 27.Rxb7 Qe1+ 28.Bf1 Ne2+
75.Bf4 Be6 76.Kb8 Bd7 77.Bg5 Be6
29.Qxe2 1-0
For Karjakin, the thought of a perma- 78.Bh6 Bd7 79.Bf4 Be6
nent pin on the b file was too horrible
There is no hope after 29.Qxe2 Qxe2
to contemplate so after 10 minutes
30.Rc8+! Rf8 31.Rxf8+ Kxf8 32.Bxe2.
he prefers to allow a quick death.

23.Nc5 Bxc5 24.Rxc5 Rd8 25.Ba5!

56  50 MOVES MAGAZINE

 WORLD CUP

Sergey Karjakin secures a spot in the next Candidates tournament

Svidler spent most of his remaining

time on this decision but there may
be no way to save the game. After 80...
Kxd5!? 81.Kc7 Bf7 82.Kd7 Be6+ 83.Ke7
Bc8 84.Kf7 Bd7! 85.Kxg6 Be8+! then
86.Kf6!! (and not 86.Kxf5 Bd7+ 87.Kf6
Bg4 which probably holds) leads to
zugzwang after 86...Bd7 87.Kf7!.

81.Kc8 Bb3 82.Kd8 Bc4 83.Ke7 Bb3

84.e6 Bc4 85.Kf6 Bb3

Has Karjakin run out of ideas? Not Black wants to answer 86.e7 with 86...
yet! Kd7 87.Bd6 Ke8 88.Kxg6 Bd1, though
perhaps even this does not hold if
80.d5+!! Bxd5 White manoeuvres his king to c5 and
follows with g4.

OCTOBER 2015  57
WORLD CUP

In any case Karjakin finds a far supe- The first of the blitz games. Svidler
Karjakin-Svidler
rior win. has played well and has 40 seconds to
Game 9, after White’s 42nd move
his opponent’s 4 (plus 3 second incre-
86.Bc1! Bc4 87.Ba3 Bb3 88.e7 Kd7 ments). Any normal move - 42...Qe8
89.Kxg6 1-0 or 42...Re8 - would win without dif-
ficulty but Svidler played 42...Kg8??
Now the h pawn is lost because 43.Qxb8+ 1-0
89.Kxg6 Bd1 is impossible because
of 90.Kf7.

Karjakin-Svidler
Game 9, after White’s 42nd move

D
id Sergey Karjakin deserve to win the 2015 edition of chess’
Hunger Games? Of course; he survived and none of the other
127 contenders did. Even Svidler admitted, “If I don’t use so
many opportunities to finish the match, I don’t deserve to
win.”

There were plenty of ‘What if?’s for Karjakin, starting with

his second round match against Onischuk – but in the end the 25-year-old, the
youngest Grandmaster in history, not only qualified for his first Candidates tour-
nament but become the only player to survive 5 must-win games in a World
Cup. Many players - even Karjakin - will probably be happy that the next FIDE
knock-out tournament is two full years away; otherwise Nakamura’s prediction
of players dying of stress might come true.

58  50 MOVES MAGAZINE

WORLD CUP

Peter Svidler when

O C you’re
T O B E Rwinning
2015  59
 WORLD CUP

Above: When you’re not

Below: The chess taxi

60  50 MOVES MAGAZINE

 WORLD CUP

Above: The closing ceremony awards

Below: Final press conference for the two players
Photos by Maria Emelianova

OCTOBER 2015  61
OCTOBER 2015 INTERVIEW

MAX ILLINGWORTH:
LIFE OF A CHESS PLAYER
2015 has been another great year for young Sydney
chessplayer Max Illingworth, who has closed in on the
Grandmaster title and won the Oceania Zonal at his
home club Norths in July to qualify for the World Cup in
Baku. We spoke to him after his match against Indian
Grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna.

Interview by Fedja Zulfic

and Moutlhun Ly
IntErvIEw By fEdja zulfIc and Moulthun ly Photos By cathy rogErs
62  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
 inTeRVieW
Road to the
World Cup
T
ell us a bit about yourself, some
interesting things people might
not know - your early life, how
you started playing chess, some
of your other hobbies etc.
As some of you already know, I am a chess
professional, which means I make my living
from chess coaching, playing and writing
about chess. When I was very young I played
a lot of games and had a knack for them
(usually beating my parents quite quickly). My
introduction to chess came as a six year old
travelling around Europe, where I saw two old
men playing on a giant chess set in Salzburg,
Austria, and I was immediately transfixed to
the game. When I returned to Australia, my
mum taught me how to play, I joined a local
junior chess club and things went from there.
I should point out that I didn’t treat chess
competitively at all for the first couple of years
I played, then when I was eight years old I
played in a tournament and saw Raymond
Song picket-fence the tournament I was
playing in, which motivated me to start
working towards becoming a stronger player.
I don’t have that many hobbies as my chess
life and work keeps me pretty busy, however
I like to run and jog, listen to music, read and
watch good films. I view myself as a passionate
person able to find pleasure in many things,
and it happens that chess is the most
pleasurable activity for me.
Who have been the major influences in
your chess career, and what role have they
played?
I feel the most substantial influences have
come from my former coaches I worked with
for a long period of time – namely John-Paul
Wallace (before he moved to Europe), Brett
Tindall and Ian Rogers. I think my current style
is to a large extent the result of John-Paul’s
emphasis on having a good understanding
of the position (which I also emphasise in
my work with my students), Brett helped a
lot in giving my play the dynamism it needed
to develop past a club level, and Ian was
instrumental in bringing pragmatism and
trickiness into my play, as well as contributing
heavily to my chess understanding and
knowledge. My work with Laszlo Hazai was
also quite important in evolving my overall
approach to the opening phase.
OCTOBER 2015  63
 ‘ My first ever pub-
In terms of favourite
players, I really liked the lished contribution Indeed, I’m familiar with
games of Peter Leko as a virtually every major
young junior, but once I was in the New in opening variation and have
gained a little experience
I realized I could learn a
Chess Yearbook in experience in many of
them – although with the
lot from the games of any machine and databases as
strong player and since 2005 ’ they are, it’s become a lot
then I tend to most closely easier to get the necessary
follow those players who are playing the best knowledge and feel for a certain variation.
at any given time. And as far as authors go, the
first chess books I studied seriously were an On the subject of my writing, my first ever
old series by Seirawan, which provided a solid published contribution was in the New In
framework for my overall chess understanding Chess Yearbook in 2005, when I noticed
as I was starting out. an important omission in a survey on the
Sveshnikov Sicilian (my main defence to 1.e4 at
You’re well known for playing a wide the time) and sent a letter correcting it. At the
variety of opening variations (just about time I probably set a record for the youngest
every one in the book!) and now regularly person to contribute to the Yearbook! Then
write about opening theory for this in mid-2009 the Australasian Chess Magazine
magazine and a number of other top was looking for a replacement ‘Games
publications. Is there something that you Columnist’ to analyse recent high-level games,
find particularly interesting about the and I fulfilled this role until the magazine’s
first phase of the game that has led to you cessation at the end of 2013.
becoming a specialist?

Left:
Two Australians in
Baku - and a third
behind the camera!
Ian talks to Max after
his game.

64  50 MOVES MAGAZINE

 MAX illinGWORTH
In the meantime I started writing surveys on a
regular basis for the New In Chess Yearbook,
then from late 2013 I started contributing
opening articles to ChessBase Magazine,
and I’ve been writing the 1.d4 d5 section of
ChessPublishing (a major opening theory
website) for a year now, as well as analyzing
high-level games for ChessBase Magazine and
writing some blog posts when I have spare
time (which is not as often as I would like!).
As for my interest in the opening phase, it’s
quite logical to put a lot of work into this
area of the game as it is quite easy to apply
such work (and to be clear, by opening work
I include study of typical middlegame and
endgame positions) in your games – you will
get the Najdorf Sicilian more often than rook
and f+h pawn vs. rook if your repertoire is so
inclined.
I think my original fascination with the opening
phase stemmed from a general curiosity,
of wondering what happens after various
continuations and wanting to try different
ideas, then I figured that I may as well learn
some theory rather than reinvent the wheel all
the time. I remember as a young kid I would
sometimes analyse by playing out some game
and then looking for improvements for both
sides from there. I think the New In Chess
magazine and Yearbook were also major
inspirations for me in this respect.
Do you feel that playing such a wide variety
of openings has helped develop your chess?
If yes, how? Were there times you feel you
may have struggled with
such a wide repertoire as a
junior?
‘ You will get the
Absolutely, to become a
very strong player you have Najdorf Sicilian
to understand every major
type of position and once I more often than
realized this in late 2008 (I’m
not sure how it clicked but I
rook and f+h pawn
vs. rook... ’
probably read it somewhere) I figured that the
best way to do so would be to study different
variations and assimilate the knowledge into
understanding through practical play.
I can think of some players who were
definitely held back by having too narrow a
repertoire – they still play the same openings
they did when they started playing serious
tournaments and it means they lack the
flexibility in thinking and recognition of ideas
from different openings to apply to their
openings to reach their full potential. At the
same time, it’s very important to be strong in a
narrow repertoire before you branch out too
much, otherwise your knowledge will be too
superficial and you won’t specialize in certain
middlegame positions (which is essentially our
goal with playing the same openings over a
large number of games).
In my case I started out experimenting with a
lot of different openings as a beginner to find
what I liked, then with the help of my coach at
the time I settled on a narrow repertoire I was
passionate about and played those lines (with
some small adjustments as I become stronger)
from 2002-2007 before realizing I was getting
jaded with some of my current choices and
needed something fresh. I remember the
first big change I made of my own accord
was ditching the King’s Indian after some bad
losses in favour of the Nimzo and Bogo-Indian,
and I quickly jumped ahead 100 rating points.
At some point if you don’t broaden your
repertoire you become a still target for the
opponent’s preparation, especially nowadays
with computers being so
strong.
In 2012 you started
studying economics
at university before
dropping out to focus
on chess full-time. At
what point did you start
considering playing
OCTOBER 2015  65
 MAX illinGWORTH
chess professionally and what gave you the
belief that you could do it?
Right, I wasn’t enjoying economics (among
other things it was too dry for my liking),
whereas chess is something I’ve been
consistently passionate about. In fact I was
already seriously thinking about being involved
in chess on a professional level for my gap
year in 2011, however at this time I did not
have a deep knowledge of the chess world and
hence I had to find out some things for myself.
But in early 2012, when I both understood
that it was possible to make a good living as
a chess coach and fully appreciated what a
full-time job as an employee would entail,
I became a lot more
motivated to make
chess work for me
(rather than assuming/ ‘ A significant fac-
believing it could not be
done) and by working tor in my decision
hard on my own
game and helping my
was seeing Ian
students I’ve succeeded
in doing so.
Rogers make a life
for himself out of
A significant factor in
my decision was seeing
Ian Rogers make a life
chess ’
for himself out of chess
– so I knew that what I
was aiming for was possible. In my case Skype
has been a huge help in allowing me to coach
students all around the world (although my
clients are primarily in Australia).
There’s obviously a number of challenges
playing chess professionally in Australia
- would you consider moving overseas to
further your career?
Yes, it’s obvious that one can’t make a living
solely from playing Australian tournaments,
due to the relative lack of sponsorship for
tournaments and the absence of government
support. I have thought about the possibility
66  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
of moving overseas. However, I wouldn’t really
like to be in a situation where I am relying
on having a good tournament to be able to
support myself. I value the independence that
comes from being primarily a chess coach,
and it allows me to play tournaments without
financial pressure, which would seriously
affect the enjoyment element for me.
My current plan is to have at least one specific
overseas trip each year as my ‘holiday’ and
work hard between tournaments to maximize
my chances of success. If you stay overseas
for a long time just playing, it can be easy
to lose focus and momentum. However, if I
was offered a job as a head national coach or
something, obviously I would
have to take it quite seriously.
Since turning pro you’ve
achieved quite a few
milestones - playing two
Olympiads, winning the
Australian Championships in
2014 and the Oceania Zonal in
July to qualify for the World
Cup, crossing 2500-ELO along
the way. It seems you’ve
been able to deal with high
pressure situations much
better than before - the
crucial last-round win against
Nisipeanu at the 2014 Olympiad and your
recovery from a potentially devastating
final-round loss against Brodie McClymont
to win the Zonal in the playoff are perhaps
the best examples. Would you agree with
this observation? Is mental resilience
something you’ve been working on?
Yes, I am fairly happy with my progress
in the last two years, and I’ve definitely
been working on my mental toughness
this year. Having some experience with
big games in tournaments makes it easier
to handle those situations and not repeat
psychological mistakes made in the past. I’ve
 The first game of the match, which proved to be decisive
found exercising much more regularly and
intensively this year has made my play a lot
more consistent, and I think my coaching
business becoming a lot more successful has
also contributed to my tournament successes
in giving me a good financial basis – with any
earnings from tournaments being a handy
bonus.
The Zonal win qualified you for the World
Cup in Baku, where it seemed like you
would initially play Gelfand until a late
change to the players list just before the
pairings were finalised meant you would
play Harikrishna. How did you prepare and
what were your expectations heading in to
the match?
Indeed, it transpired that I was somewhat
unlucky with this change of pairing – obviously
both players are super-GMs, however Gelfand
lost his Round 1 match to a Chilean IM, so
it is fair to say that in hindsight, my odds
would have been better against Gelfand than
Harikrishna (although Harikrishna was also
knocked out early, in Round 2).
There wasn’t a lot of time for me to prepare
for this match, as I only knew the pairing a few
weeks beforehand, and I was also quite busy
with coaching and writing before leaving to
play the World Cup. I had worked on specific
openings to play against Harikrishna, and I
understood that because he plays so many
openings, this match would probably be
decided not so much on opening knowledge
but on who is more comfortable in the arising
position. So I decided to stick to systems
where I felt I could target my opponent and
where he would feel uncomfortable, without
OCTOBER 2015  67
INTERVIEW
‘ The main prob-
compromising too much
on my own comfort level lem for me was that
with the position.
I played way too
I also played practice
matches (in the style of slowly ’
the World Cup) against
two strong Grandmasters
and was happy with how
those matches went – and
while that didn’t translate into success at the
World Cup, I learned a lot from the games and
I think the work I’ve done for this event will
contribute to better results in the near future.
I felt that for this match, it would be important
to try and hold the draw with Black, and
exert some light but constant pressure with
White, and that my odds would improve quite
significantly in a tiebreak, as my opponent is
generally a bit stronger in classical chess.
Can you give us a short summary of how
your games went?
Sure, in the first game I surprised my
opponent with a Flank Openings system I
hadn’t played much in the database, and my
opponent played a counter-surprise. When
I play in Australia I find that generally when
someone plays a surprise they are bluffing
to some extent and haven’t ironed out the
details, but when you are playing a 2600+
GM and they surprise you, they usually have
looked at the lines at home already. In any
case, we followed theory, but I hadn’t looked
at this Double Fianchetto system for a while,
however my opponent was also struggling to
remember his home analysis (which proved to
be more detailed than mine).
However the main problem for me was that
I played way too slowly – playing my first
tournament game ever with this format and
participating in the World Championship cycle,
along with playing a higher-rated player, led
me to constantly second-guess myself instead
68  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
of playing the obvious moves
quickly based on my initial
calculations. Then when I
did get a better position,
I made another mistake I
know to avoid – looking for
a way to totally prove that I
was much better rather than
playing an obvious and good
move that would preserve
my advantage. When I saw several of the top
players looking closely at my game, I took it
as a confirmation that I had a big opportunity
and after using way too much time, I played
a bad move, made a lot more mistakes in the
endgame (some the result of time pressure)
and lost.
With these two classical games, if you lose with
White against a super-GM you are more or less
a goner unless they choke, so I decided my
best chance for the second game was to play
a normal opening that I was comfortable with
and had prepared (rather than going crazy
trying to attack), and play quickly so I would
not doubt my calculations. Unfortunately
I made a quite simple oversight in one key
variation which led me to make a desperate
and incorrect exchange sacrifice instead, but
I got away with a draw by finding some good
defensive moves to liquidate all the pawns on
one side of the board after he missed a win.
In any case, I learned a lot from these two
games and I think that the next time I play in
the World Cup I will be a lot more confident
and not allow the magnitude of the event to
cloud my objectivity over the board.
What were your impressions of Baku and
the organisation of the World Cup?
Baku is a very nice city, the architecture is
quite impressive and there is a deep culture
in the country. The organization of the World
Cup meanwhile has been great, the players
were taken care of well in the official hotel

and during the games. It was also very nice to
briefly communicate with some of the world’s
strongest players – it’s a particularly good
feeling when they initiate the conversation! It
shows that the top players in general are very
good people and not ‘elitist’ as such.
What are your upcoming tournaments
plans? Have you set yourself some goals
you’d like to achieve now that you’ve
won perhaps the biggest tournaments in
Australia?
I will be playing the Malaysian Open in late
September and then travelling to the Isle of
Man Open in early October before returning
to Sydney. Then I have the MCC Hjorth Open
in November, the Australasian Masters in
December and the Australian Championship
in January, all in Melbourne. We will see after
MAX ILLINGWORTH
that – although if I do exceptionally well in the
Malaysian Open and Isle of Man Open I may
consider a second trip this year, possibly to the
London Chess Classic and Al Ain Open.
As far as goals go, my main aim is to become
as strong a chess player as possible. However
I think the logical steps from here would be
to start winning some of the strong open
tournaments in Asia and to get my FIDE rating
over 2600. At the time that happens I should
have a pretty good idea of what direction to
go next. My long-term goal as a coach is to
attain the FIDE Senior Trainer title (which is
even more exclusive than the Grandmaster
title), and it would be nice to write a very high-
quality book at some stage.
Thanks for talking to us and good luck for your
next tournaments!
OCTOBER 2015  69
 Illingoworth, Max 2517
Harikrishna, Pentala 2743
World Cup 2015 Baku R1.1
I didn’t have a great deal of time to
prepare for this Round 1 match as the
pairings were only confirmed a few
weeks before the start of the World
Cup, and my opponent has a very
broad repertoire so it wasn’t easy to
guess what he would play. However
I’d done some preparations and
decided to go with what I was
comfortable with, and hope to take
him to tiebreaks where I felt my
chances would be greater. One
unique feature of matches compared
to open tournaments is that you are
quite happy to draw as Black, as it
neutralises the opponent’s White
pieces and gives you the chance to
press in the next game.
1.Nf3 I couldn’t see a hole in my
opponent’s Nimzo/Queen’s Indian
repertoire, and he played too many
systems against 1.e4 for that move
to be practical, so I went for 1.Nf3 to
move order him out of certain Nimzo/
QID lines. I also figured it would have
a nice surprise factor.
1...Nf6 2.c4 b6 This wasn’t really a
surprise, as in a very recent game
against Mamedyarov he went for
2...e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 c5 and it was
logical that I would be
70  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
ready for this. Personally I think this
Nimzo-English version is a bit better
for White than the pure Nimzo as
in many cases White benefits from
having the pawn on d3 instead of
d4 (covering the e4 square and not
blocking the long diagonal for the
queen’s bishop).
3.g3 c5 However this was a bit of a
surprise as my opponent had never
played the Double Fianchetto or
Hedgehog before. Of course allowing
the Symmetrical is the price you pay
for starting with 1.Nf3! ( 3...Bb7 4.Bg2
g6 is what he had done in two games
in 2014, but I think White can obtain a
slight pull with ( 4...e6 5.O-O Be7 6.d4
move orders Black out of certain QID
variations.) 5.d4 Bg7 6.O-O O-O 7.Re1,
staying flexible in turn, as Black’s
system is dependent on meeting Nc3
with ...Ne4 to trade the knight and
take control of e4. Without the knight
on c3 though, ...Ne4 does nothing
and it’s not that easy to find a good
pawn break for Black otherwise. )
4.Bg2 Bb7 5.O-O g6 This came as
a pleasant surprise as I’d surmised
before the match that I would have the
best chances for success in relatively
tense positions. I thought this decision
by him was spontaneous to try and
Game Annotated
by IM Illingworth
get me out of my preparation, but it
turns out he was fairly well prepared!
5...e6 and playing the Hedgehog
setup is the alternative.
6.Nc3 Bg7 7.d4 cxd4
( 7...Ne4 8.Nxe4 Bxe4 9.d5 O-O 10.Bh3
Bxf3 11.exf3 is quite promising for
White, based on his space advantage
and pair of bishops.)
8.Qxd4
(8.Nxd4 Bxg2 9.K xg2 deser ves
attention as an interesting alternative,
playing for a space advantage with a
later e4, however the direct
9...O-O 10.e4 Qc7 11.b3 Nxe4! looks
fine for Black after the semi-forced
sequence 12.Nxe4 Qe5 13.Qf3 Qxd4
14.Rb1 f5 15.Ng5 Nc6 16.Rd1 Qc5
17.Rxd7 Ne5 18.Qd5+ Qxd5+ 19.Rxd5
Rfd8 )
8...d6
Many years ago I had a very nice win
with 8...Nc6 9.Qf4 h6?! 10.Rd1 g5?!
11.Qd2 Na5?! 12.b3 ! Ne4 13.Nxe4
Bxa1 14.Nd4 Bxd4 15.Qxd4 Rg8 ?
16.Ba3 f5 17.Bxe7! , which helped me

win an Australian weekender back in
my junior days.)
Naturally Black should avoid the
common mistake 8...O-O?! 9.Qh4! as
now White achieves the favourable
Bh6 swap in one go (compared to the
game when Black castled only after
White plays Be3, so that Bh6 would
take a second tempo).
9.Rd1
9.Qh4?! is pointless when Black can
reply 9...h6! crossing the Bh6 plan
and leaving the White queen rather
offside.
9...Nbd7 10.Be3 Rc8 11.Rac1 I quickly
checked to make sure Rac1 was the
right move order and not b3 first.
11...O-O
11...a6 12.b3 leaves Black with nothing
better than 12...O-O regardless.
12.Qh4 ...Ne4 among other things
was threatened, and now I’m almost
ready to play Bh6 and start an attack
on the Black king.
12...a6 13.b3 Typical moves in the
White attacking sequence are Bh6,
Bh3, g4-g5 and Ng5. In fact Black has
to be quite precise to not face a very
strong White initiative.
13...Re8 A natural prophylactic move
to counter Bh6 with ...Bh8 and thereby
keep Black’s king relatively safe. The
disadvantage is that after g4-g5
Black doesn’t have the e8-square as
a retreat for his knight.
13...Rc7 is more common to clear the
way for Black’s queen to move, when
White can play 14.Bh3 and the game
goes on.
14.g4!? is also quite logical, and maybe
even the better move given that Bh3
doesn’t pin the knight anymore.
14.Bh3 Only this move makes sense,
to limit Black’s options and prepare
Ng5 without allowing the exchange
of light-squared bishops. Generally
speaking Black dreams of playing
...b5 in these structures to eliminate
White’s space advantage, and usually
White can’t stop him from achieving
it, but hopes that his kingside threats
will be more important.
14...Ba8!? This curious move is
BAKu WORld CuP
actually the main line in my opening
file and I still deem it the strongest
move. It looks funny to retreat the
bishop like this, but first it serves as
a waiting move (for White to play g4,
this will make more sense a couple of
moves down the track) and second,
in some lines the bishop will be safer
on a8 than b7.
A recent super-GM game went 14...
Rc7 instead, but after 15.g4! Qa8
16.Bd4 h6?! 17.g5 hxg5 18.Nxg5 e6
19.Be3 Qb8 20.Bf4 ± White had a huge
advantage already and should have
won in ½ - ½ (50) Caruana,F (2808) -
So,W (2779) Saint Louis 2015
15.g4 Once again, I couldn’t see
another way to exert pressure on the
opponent’s position.
15.Ne1 is possible, but hardly an ideal
move as in general it helps to keep
the option of Ng5 for the kingside
attack, and Black isn’t threatening
Bxf3 at all.
15...b5! 16.cxb5 This seemed the
only logical move during the game,
but actually it’s also possible to opt
for 16.g5 Nh5 17.c5! using the pins
on the knight, although after 17...Rc7
( 17...Nxc5?! 18.Bxc8 Qxc8 19.b4 +/=
) 18.b4 dxc5 19.bxc5 e6 20.Ne4 Qe7
21.Nd6 Rd8 22.Bg4 Nxc5 ! 23.Bxc5 Nf4
24.Ne1 Rxc5 25.Rxc5 Bb7! 26.Nc8 Rxc8
27.Rxc8+ Bxc8 Black’s bishop pair and
White’s unsafe king gave Black full
compensation for the exchange in ½
OCTOBER 2015  71
feATuRe AnAlYSiS
- ½ (45) Bu,X (2699) - Sethuraman,S
(2576) Sharjah 2014
16...Qa5
( 16...Bxf3 17.exf3 Ne5 18.Bg2 )
17.g5! I think this novelty (which I
found over the board quite quickly,
though it took a while for me to play
it) is an improvement over 17.Bd2
Bxf3 18.g5 or 18.exf3 Ne5 19.Kg2
axb5 20.g5 Nfd7 with equal chances
and one look at White’s structure
should convince you he is not better.
18...Nd5 19.Bxd7 Rxc3 20.Bxc3 Nxc3
21.Rxc3 Qxc3 22.Bxe8 Bxe2 23.Qf4
Bxd1 24.Qxf7+ Kh8 25.Bc6 Bxb3
26.axb3 Qc1+ with perpetual check
in ½ - ½ (37) Mamedyarov,S (2760) -
Karjakin,S (2772) Shamkir 2014
17...R xc3 18.R xc3 This move is
correct, but I spent far too long on it
- time I could have used later.
18.gxf6 Rxc1 19.Rxc1 Nxf6 is clearly a
72  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
worse version for White of the game
as a2 is under fire, and if 20.b6 Nd5!
takes care of the White queenside,
and only Black can be better.
Greediness would be most imprudent
after 20...Qxa2?! 21.Bc8 Bd5 22.b7
Qxb3 23.Nd2 + − 18...Qxc3 19.gxf6
Nxf6 20.bxa6 Qc2 21.Re1 This is a
key position for the entire Double
Fianchetto system and when the
match was over my opponent
explained that he had completely
forgotten his home analysis at this
point.
21...Qxa2 ? Regaining the pawn at
the earliest opportunity loses the
initiative and makes White’s passed
a-pawn the most important factor in
the position.
21...Nd5! was the right move, when
after 22.Bd7! ( 22.Bd2?! Nc3! threatens
the awkward ...Nxe2. ) ( 22.Bh6 Nc3
23.Nd4 Qxa2 24.Bxg7 Kxg7 25.Bd7
Qd2! 26.Kf1 Rf8 =/+ is also good for
Black, as White’s king is much weaker
with the queens on the board.) 22...
Rf8 23.Bh6 Qxa2 24.Bxg7 Kxg7 25.Qa4
Qxa4 26.Bxa4 the machine indicates
that the position is equal. White has
a nice-looking passed a-pawn but no
real way to make use of it, however
it does tie up Black’s pieces enough.
21...Ne4?! doesn’t work because
there are extra possibilities with Ng5
compared to after ...Nd5:
22.Bd7 Rd8 23.Ng5! Nxg5 24.Qxg5
and now Black can’t take on d7
because of Rc1, however 24...Bf6
25.Qg4 Rxd7 26.Rc1 Qe4 27.Rc8+ Kg7
28.Qxe4 Bxe4 29.a7 and a8=Q also
favours White, due to his outside
passed pawns supported quite well
by the e3-bishop.
22.Qa4! Qxa4 23.bxa4 Now my king
safety is not an issue, and White has
the advantage. However during the
game I vastly overestimated the
extent of my advantage and on the
next move used most of my time
looking for an extremely strong
continuation that wasn’t there.
23...Nd5 24.Nd4? This is a totally
wrong decision - I wanted to play
Nb5 to support my passed pawns
but it is too slow and in the meantime
my h3-bishop will end up out of the
game.

24.Rb1 is what I spent some time
calculating among other things.
24...Nxe3
24...Nc3 was my reason for rejecting
Rb1, but White can play 25.Rb2 Nxe2+
26.Rxe2 Bxf3 27.Re1 f5 28.a7 Ba8
29.Rb1 d5 30.Rb8 Kf7 31.Bb6! and
Bd8 will finish Black.
25.fxe3 e6
25...Bxf3 ? 26.exf3 Ra8 27.Bf1 is a line
I saw to be good for me during the
game, but then somehow I forgot I
had Bf1 in this line when thinking for
too long over my move.
26.a7 Kf8 27.Kf2 Ke7 28.Rb8 d5 with
equal chances and I don’t see how
White can make progress as his
bishop is incapable of joining the
action.
24.Bd2! is obviously the right move,
not allowing Black to kill White’s
dynamism with a trade on e3, and
BAKu WORld CuP
opening ideas of Rb1 or Rc1 now that draw.
Nc3 is not a big problem anymore:
27.Kf2 Rc8 By this stage I was already
24...Nc3 Black would end up in hot starting to get low on time, even
water after 24...e6?! 25.Rc1 h6 26.Bg2 keeping in mind that the players gain
Kf8 27.a7 g5 28.e3 ± and the a7-pawn half an hour on the clock once move
is a major headache for Black, and 40 is completed.
White can play moves like Nd4 to help
support it. 28.Rb1 This is the only option I could
see during the game. The point of
25.Bxc3 Bxc3 26.Rc1 Bb4 27.Bc8! Bc5 26...Bh6 can be seen after 28.Bg2?
28.Bb7 and White is much better as Bxg2 29.Kxg2 Bxe3.
the a8-bishop is paralysed and the
e8-rook is stuck defending it, while 28.Rg1 and Bg2 is an alternative
White can bring his knight over to pointed out by the machine, however
help support the pawns. I had seen after 28...Kf7 29.Bg2 d5 30.a7 Bf8 the
this Bc8-b7 idea but I felt I deserved g2-bishop is completely out of the
more than this because I couldn’t game, and Black is simply better.
prove this was winning. Which is quite
irrational really. 28...Kf7!
24...f5! This move hadn’t occurred 29.a7 Rc4! This is very consistent
to me, but once my opponent played play, as a slow move like 29...Ke8
it I realised I was now in real danger gives White time to go for 30.Nd4 and
and had to look for a way to draw the Rb8 to establish a queenside bind.
game.
30.a5 Ra4
25.Nb5 Dealing with the threat of
...f4.
25...Nxe3 26.fxe3 Bh6! This move
is more unpleasant to counter as it
avoids 26...Rc8 27.e4! , a trick I had
ready to save myself. The point is that
after 27...Bxe4 28.Bg2 the a7-pawn
will severely tie up Black’s pieces now
that the light-squared bishops are
coming off, and after 28...Ba8 29.Bxa8
Rxa8 30.a7 with equal chances White
should have any problems making a
OCTOBER 2015  73
feATuRe AnAlYSiS
31.Nc7?! Grabbing the piece was
totally impractical as Black gets a
lot of pawns in return and White will
have serious problems with his piece
coordination in the resulting position.
Actually during the game I thought
my opponent had just blundered the
piece away and didn’t think too much
of the move.
31.Rb3 Rxa5 32.Bg2 d5 33.Nc7 e6
34.Nxa8 Rxa7 is also not so easy for
White to draw, as after 35.Nb6 Rb7
he is unable to free the knight from
the pin.
31.e4! was the right way, deflecting
one of Black’s pieces: 31...Rxe4
( 31...Bxe4 32.Rb3 with equal chances
and Bg2 will hold the draw. )
32.Rb3 Rf4+ 33.Rf3 Ra4 34.Bg2! Bxf3
35.Bxf3 Rxa5 36.a8=Q Rxa8 37.Bxa8
and this endgame is just a draw. I had
looked into e4 ideas when the Black
rook was on c8, but it didn’t enter my
mind at all here.
31...Ra3! 32.Nxa8 Bxe3+ 33.Kg2?!
This is a mistake, as my bishop on h3
will remain out of play for a long time.
33.Kf1 Rxa5 34.Nc7 Rxa7 35.Nb5 Ra4
36.Bg2 was correct, although Black’s
pawns are still quite strong and with
the better opposite-coloured bishop
to boot so it’s still not so easy for
74  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
White to draw in practice.
33...Rxa5 34.Rb7
I could still have corrected my mistake
with 34.Nc7 Rxa7 35.Nb5 Ra4 36.Kf3.
However I had no time on the clock
but the 30 second increment and was
playing active moves.
34...Bxa7 35.Nc7 Bd4! A ver y
unpleasant move, keeping my knight
dominated by the bishop.
36.Rb3? I was quite worried about
Ra3, leaving my king on g2 stuck
defending the h3-bishop, however
the right way to cover that was
36.Nb5 Be5 37.Kg1, when my bishop
reenters the game with Bf1, although
of course Black is still better after
37...Kf6 38.Bf1 g5
36...Rc5! 37.Nb5 Be5 Now my
problems are increased as ...Rc2 is
threatened, simply taking away one
of my pawns.
38.Rb4
38.Rb1 Rc2 39.Kf2 Bxh2 40.Bg2 Be5
is a better version of what happens
in the game, but I still think with four
pawns for a not very useful knight,
Black should win.
38.Na3 might be best to stop Rc2
and plan Nb1-d2-f3 at some point,
without giving up the h2-pawn.
38...Rc2 39.Kf2 Bxh2 40.Nd4 Rc3
41.Nf3 Be5
After this game I thought the ending
was losing for me, but now I think I
can draw it with best play - but not
with what I did in the game.
42.Nxe5+?
42.e4! offered better chances of
defending and after 42...Rc2+ 43.Kf1
Kf6 ( The problem with 43...f4 is that
following 44.Ng5+ Kg7 45.Ne6+ Kh6
46.Bg4 Black’s king and pawns are
stuck, so White can probably stilll
hang on to the draw. )
44.Nxe5 dxe5 45.Rb6+ e6 46.Bg2 and
the key difference here compared to
the game is that White threatens exf5
and Bd5, and by getting rid of one of
Black’s pawns quickly, he will be able
to save the game.
42...dxe5 Now the ending is just a win
for Black because he will play ...e4,
charge the g- and h-pawns down

the board and leave White without a
defence while the king backs up. It’s
remarkable how useless the bishop
is in fighting back against the pawns.
43.Bf1 h5 44.e3
44.e4 was probably still the best try,
though Black should still win after
44...e6! keeping the pawns united.
44...Rc2+ 45.Be2
or 45.Ke1 Rc1+ 46.Kf2 e4 and Black
will play ...e6, ...Kf6, ...g5 and ...h4,
and White will not be able to stop
everything at once.
45...g5 46.Ke1 g4! Now after my
Harikrishna, Pentala 2743
Illingworth, Max 2517
World Cup, Baku 2015 R1.2
failure to activate my pieces, Black
just wins,.
47.Bc4+
I had missed that after 47.Bd3 Rc1+
48.Kd2 Black wins with 48...!
47...Kf6 48.Rb6+ Kg5 49.Bf 7 g3
50.Rg6+ Kh4 51.Bd5 Rf2 52.Rh6 Kg4
53.Bc4 Kf3 54.Rxh5 Kxe3 55.Rg5 f4
56.Bd5 e4 57.Re5 Re2+ 58.Kd1 Kf2
59.Rg5 f3
0-1
This game will have much briefer
annotations as I ended up with
a fairly self-explanatory fortress
position quite quickly. Which doesn’t
help much for a must-win game, but
it sure beats losing!
1.e4 I was a bit surprised by my
opponent ’s opening choice, as I
thought he would just kill the game
with the Torre. However I think my
opponent was keen to win the match
2-0!
1...c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4
Nc6 5.Nc3 a6 While many players
would go for something very sharp
in such a must-win game, I figured
my best chances would lie in playing
something I felt fairly comfortable
with and knowledgeable about,
and my move order also served to
surprise my opponent.
5...Qc7 is the standard Taimanov
move order.
6.Be2 d6 7.O-O Nf6 8.Be3 Be7 My
opponent started thinking for a while,
realising that we would soon be in a
sharp main line Scheveningen (which
suited me just fine) and looking
for a way out to make the position
relatively simple.
9.a4 O-O 10.Nxc6 I saw this idea over
the board despite not considering it in
my preparation, but I was quite happy
BAKu WORld CuP
with the arising position at first.
10.f4 Qc7 11.Kh1 transposes to
the main line of the Classical
Scheveningen, with far more nuances
than can possibly be explained in a
few lines.
10...bxc6 11.a5
If White doesn’t fix the queenside, the
trade on c6 would have no point.
11...c5?!
I played this move quite quickly,
having surmised that because I
played far too slowly in the first
game (doubting myself and second-
guessing my calculations all the time,
I should play fast and confidently in
this game. There’s nothing objectively
wrong with this move, but it allows
White to greatly simplify the position.
11...Bb7 12.Qd3 c5 was the correct
move order, to eliminate the option
of e5.
OCTOBER 2015  75
feATuRe AnAlYSiS
12.e5! I saw this idea the instant I
played 11...c5, however it was too late
to go back.
12...dxe5 13.Qxd8 Rxd8 14.Na4 Rb8
15.Rfd1?!
During the game we both thought this
move was quite strong, but actually
it has a tactical issue we both missed
(or at least I missed).
15.b3 is best, although here the
exchange sack I played in the game
with 15...Rd4! actually works well,
as c2-c3 would turn the b3-pawn
into a weakness, but 16.Bxd4 cxd4!
gives Black great compensation as
he can place a knight on c3 soon and
a bishop on b4 to freeze the whole
position.
15...Rd4? This move is just bad of
course, but I played it first because
76  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
I thought I was clearly worse if I lost
the c5-pawn as then the a6-pawn
also becomes a target, and second
because I had miscalculated the
following important variation:
My original intention (when I first
saw the option 15.Rfd1) 15...Rxd1+!
16.Rxd1 Nd5 is actually working for
Black! 17.Bc4
I thought I was losing a piece after
17.Bxc5 Bxc5 18.Nxc5 Rxb2 19.c4,
overlooking that the bishop on e2 is
hanging! Black is simply much better
after 19...Rxe2 20.cxd5 Rc2 21.dxe6
fxe6
17...Nxe3 18.fxe3 g6 and with an extra
pawn and the bishop pair, only Black
can win from this position.
16.Bxd4 cxd4? Another mistake,
although fortunately I am not fully
punished for this one. I can’t really
explain why I went for this recapture
over exd4, since as soon as I
recaptured (and I did so very quickly)
I realised that c3 was horrible for me
as I can’t avoid the position opening
for his rooks.
16 ...e xd 4 gi ves Black par tial
compensation for the exchange
based on the bishop pair and strong
centre, however White will keep an
advantage by opening files quickly
with 17.Nb6 Bb7 18.c3 e5 19.Rac1
followed by cxd4 or b4, with an
indisputable advantage.
17.c3! At this point I was disgusted
with myself for playing so woefully
over the last few moves and was
basically looking for moves that
meant I didn’t have to resign from
this point on.
17...Bd8! Swapping of f White’s
queenside pawns and holding the
position with pawns all on one side is
the only drawing chances. Everything
else will lose quite prosaically.
18.cxd4 Immediately after the game
Nakamura indicated that White
should play 18.Nc5! to preserve the
a-pawn, and indeed this just wins
after 18...Rxb2 19.Bxa6 Bxa6 20.Nxa6
Nd5 21.cxd4 Nc3 22.Re1 exd4 23.Nc5
and the passed a-pawn is decisive.
However my opponent played the
automatic capture quite quickly,
probably believing he would win the
a6-pawn by force.
18...exd4 19.Rxd4 ?
19.Nc5 would still be easily winning.
19...Bxa5 Now, despite the engine’s
extremely optimistic evaluation, I
don’t think White can win as he can’t
take my a-pawn without trading
off the b-pawn in the process, and
if I can play ...Nd5 and improve my
a5-bishop’s placement, I will be very
solid.
20.Nc5
 BAKu WORld CuP

20.Rc1! would preserve good winning
chances for White.
20...Bb6 21.b4
21.Rc1 a5 makes further progress on
White’s part far from obvious, as the
b2-pawn is blockaded and Black has
no weaknesses.
21...Nd5 22.Rc4 White prepares
to take on a6 as he can’t do so
immediately: 22.Bxa6? Bxc5 23.bxc5
Bxa6
23...Bd8 Another key defensive
move.
24.Nxa6 This might look like giving
up, but after 24.Rb1 Be7 it is very
hard for White to untangle, especially
as 25.Nd3?! allows Black to activate
his other bishop with 25...Bd7
threatening ...Bb5.
24...Bxa6 25.Rxa6 Nxb4 26.Ra1 Nd5
Now I draw pretty easily by placing
my pawns on light squares, keeping
my knight around e7/g8/f6 and using
my bishop to tie at least one of his
pieces to the defence of his pawns.
White can’t make any progress.
54.Kg3 Ne7 55.Be4 Be5+ 56.f4 Bc3
57.Kf3 Kf8 58.Rc2 Be1 59.Rc1 Bd2
60.Rd1 Ba5 61.Ra1 Bc3 62.Ra8+ Kg7
63.Ke2 Bb4 64.Re8 Bd6 65.Kf3 Bb4
66.Rd8 Ba5 67.Rd7 Kf8 68.Ke2 Bb4
69.Rd8+ Kg7 70.Rd7 Kf8 71.Rd8+ Kg7
72.Rd7
I offered a draw and my opponent
accepted. All in all, there are many
lessons for me to take away from this
match, and I hope to do a lot better
in my next World Cup!
1/2 - 1/2

22...Kf8! This is a quite important

defensive move, avoiding any back
rank issues.

23.Kf1 My idea was that af ter
23.Nxa6 Bxa6 24.Rxa6 Nxb4 25.Rxb4
Bxf2+ 26.Kxf2 Rxb4 Black has a draw
as White is unable to attack the sole
weakness on f7 with three pieces.
Black can play ...g6/...Kg7/...h5/rook
on the f-file and there’s nothing White
can do.
27.Bf3 Bf6 28.Rac1 Ne7 29.Ra4 g6
30.Ra8 Rxa8 31.Bxa8 h5 32.Be4 Ng8
33.Rc8+ Kg7 34.Rc7 Be5 35.Rb7 Nf6
36.Bc6 Kf8 37.h3 Bd4 38.Ke2 Bc5
39.g3 Kg7 40.f3 Bd6 41.Kf2 Bc5+
42.Kg2 Bd6 43.h4 Kf8 44.Kh3 Bc5
45.g4 Bf2 46.Rb8+ Kg7 47.Rb2 Be1
48.Rb7 Kf8 49.g5 Ng8 50.Rb8+ Kg7
51.Rb1 Bf2 52.Rb2 Be1 53.Re2 Bc3

OCTOBER 2015  77
 ROOKieS CORneR the Knight fork
Solutions page 101

The Knight Fork occurs when a knight attacks two or more pieces at once. It is
one of the most commonly used tactical themes - because of the way the knight
moves, it can attack other pieces without being threatened by them. Often,
the knight fork involves attacking the opponent’s king and another one of their
pieces - the king is forced to move out of the check and then the knight can take
the other attacked piece.

The position below is a good example of a knight fork. Black’s last move was
Bf6-Bb2. With the e7-square now unprotected, White can play 1. Ne7+ Kf8 2.
Nxf5 winning a piece and a decisive advantage.

To solve the puzzles on the next page, you’ll need to use a knight fork to win
material. Remember - a knight is worth 3 points, so you can try and trade it for a
more valuable piece such as a queen (9 points) or rook (5 points).

The puzzles are arranged to get increasingly difficult as you solve each one - the
bottom three are particuarly tricky. Happy solving!
1. White to move 2. White to move 3. White to move

4. White to move 5. White to move 6. Black to move

7. White to move 8. White to move 9. White to move

OCTOBER 2015  79
guy wEst a lIfE In chEss BooK rEvIEw

SAMUEL LIPSCHÜTZ –
A LIFE IN CHESS
a BooK rEvIEw By IM guy wEst

Stephen Davies 2015 - McFarland and in the game’s history, the 1880s and 90s.
Co. Hardback - 399 pages. he joined the Manhatten chess club in
RRP US ?!5
(Also available as an E-Book) 1883, only two years after the death of Billy

s
the Kid and a year after the death of jesse
james. doc holliday still lived in the wild
tephen davies is a tourna-
country west of the Mississippi and harry
ment chessplayer who lives in
longabaugh (the sundance Kid) would
the picturesque dandenong
have been just 20 years old. stephen davies
ranges east of Melbourne.
could just as well have chosen any new york
we are acquainted through
based chessmaster from the same period as
chess but coincidentally he and his wife
his main protagonist, and it was by accident
also happen to know my mother-in-law.
really that he became fascinated by the life
stephen was kind enough to give me a copy
of samuel lipschütz. I won’t spoil the story
of his new book to review, and given the
of how this happened, as he explains it in
rarity of australian authored chess books
the preface to the book.
I was intrigued enough to accept the task.

for those of you who are not students of

why on earth though, would anyone want
chess history, the american chess genius
to read a book about an obscure american
Paul Morphy retired from the game in 1859,
chessmaster from the 19th century? a
only about 25 years before the period that
valid question, but there is an equally valid
davies’ book deals with. obviously Morphy’s
answer.
dominance of the chess world, underlined
by his triumphant tour abroad where he
lipschütz entered the stage of world chess
crushed many of the renowned European
during an exceptionally interesting period

80  50 MOVES MAGAZINE

guy wEst
masters and was hailed as the
world’s best player, must have
been writ large over the chess
culture of the time. the ‘new
World’ was riding high on confi-
dence and, especially post-Mor-
phy, began producing some very
strong players who feature prom-
inently in the book. not only were
strong home-grown heroes like
captain george MacKenzie, Max
judd, jackson showalter, frank
Marshall and others coming
to the fore, immigration from
Europe, of which lipschütz
(from hungary) was an example,
gifted the united states some
superb players, most notably
the man who was to be recog-
nised as the first official World
chess champion, wilhelm
steinitz himself.
The first chapter of the book
starts slowly, spending a lot of
time establishing the somewhat
shaky fact that lipschütz’ given
name was in fact samuel, rather
than solomon, salomon or various
other unsamuelish possibilities.
after that, however, the author
starts to hit his stride.
let me say at the outset that this
book epitomises the expression
‘labour of love’. It contains 399
pages of meticulously researched
material, including 249 games,
frequently with annotations by
a lIfE In chEss
various parties of the day, most
notably steinitz, who is some-
what given to entertaining pontifi-
cation. this commentary is some-
times mischievously refuted with
the help of modern computer
analysis by the author.
one of the most fascinating
aspects of the book is the per-
spective it gives you on the evolu-
tion of the game. the best players
‘ Let me say at
the outset that this
book epitomises the
expression ‘labour
of love’ ’
in the world, although prodi-
giously talented and possessing
great combinative flair, can be
seen to make trivial blunders, both
tactical and positional, in almost
every game. It’s an obvious fact,
but perhaps not widely appreci-
ated, that the journeyman grand-
master of today would effortlessly
crush the world’s best players of
the late 19th century. the level of
tactical discipline these days can’t
be compared to what it was in a
time when the so called ‘romantic’
era of chess had still not entirely
BooK rEvIEw
succumbed to steinitz’s ‘Modern’
school. If you want to feel good
about your chess just look at any
of the many diagrams in this book
and spot the often simple refuta-
tion to the mistakes of famous
players.
davies’ style is very understated
and he doesn’t intrude into the
narrative much at all, relating facts
painstakingly garnered from his-
torical books and newspaper
records of the time. It’s a vast
body of historical information,
quite detailed and academic,
but seduces you more and more
as you continue.
there are many entertaining ref-
erences, en passant, to famous
icons of the times like ajeeb, the
american version of the chess
‘automaton’ which was of course
operated by a small statured but
skilful chessplayer hidden in the
cramped confines of the contrap-
tion. a section about the great
new york blizzard of 1888, which
brought the city to a standstill for
several days, makes very interest-
ing reading.
The reader is like a fly on the wall,
observing the goings on of the
Manhattan and new york chess
clubs and various venues around
the us and the unique personal-
ities who lived and played there,
OCTOBER 2015  81
guy wEst
or visited america’s thriving chess
scene from abroad. and visitors
there are many… such famous
names as joseph ‘the Black
death’ Blackburne from England
and Mikhail Ivanovich chigorin,
the great russian master, do
battle with our hero. dr johannes
zukertort of Poland and later the
uK seems to be hanging around
a lot in the early part of the book.
If you want to read an hilarious
account of zukertort’s embel-
lishments of his own biogra-
phy, the paragraph on that
subject in wikipedia makes
very amusing reading. after a
panoply of dashing deeds and
long-winded achievements it
concludes with the priceless
words, ‘there is some truth in
the last sentence…’
certainly what I loved most
about the book was this won-
derful menagerie of colourful
characters that inhabit its pages.
of course we all know that chess-
players can be marvellous carica-
tures of humanity, kaleidoscopes
of human frailties and noble quali-
ties fighting for ascendancy in the
one person. add to this the focus
on elegant phraseology and gen-
tlemanly discourse of that era
and you find some truly hilarious
descriptions of players and events,
mostly from the newspaper corre-
spondents of the day.
82  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
a lIfE In chEss
steinitz’s writings are a great
source of amusement too, as he
was a notoriously prickly character,
in no doubt as to his own impor-
tance. he was continually feuding
with one rival or another, espe-
cially dr zukertort, whose defeat
in match play earned steinitz the
title of official World Champion.
steinitz once accused the famous
problemist sam loyd of misappro-
priating funds, which caused quite
‘ What I loved most
about this book was
this wonderful me-
nagerie of colourful
characters that in-
habit its pages ‘
a bunfight for a while. steinitz
became a naturalised us citizen
in 1888, shortly after lipschütz in
the same year.
there appears to have been
n ot h i n g remarkable about
lipschütz’s personality, but the
reader tends to identify with him
as the book progresses and he is
certainly not unlikeable in any way.
during his match with Eugene
delmar, one of the leading new
york masters, the albany Evening
BooK rEvIEw
journal published an irreverent
summary of the two contestants,
with the kind of endearing pen-
manship already referred to. the
description of lipschütz, after
mentioning his various credentials
which culminate in losing (by an
honourable score) a match against
the ‘gallant captain MacKenzie’,
included the following line:
‘lip is of a quiet disposition, not
given to wind.’
what a nicely crafted descrip-
tion. no doubt if “lip” had emi-
grated to australia he would
have transformed into “lippo”.
later in the book lipschütz is
described in a pen portrait in
the new york times as having,
‘a good forehead and prominent
nose’, possibly an oblique ref-
erence to his semitic origins.
Indeed, writers of the time
seem to have something of an
unnatural obsession with noses, as
the correspondent from the sun
described him as follows:
‘Mr lipschütz is a slim, round
shouldered gentleman, with a
rather pale, striking face and a
prominent nose that would have
made him a captain in the days
of napoleon Bonaparte, who
favoured men with large noses.’
I must pay more attention to my
opponent’s noses in future. lev
guy wEst
Polugaevsky had an impressive
proboscis, I recall.
the correspondent from the
albany Evening journal who so
appreciated his lack of bluster, or
flatulence as the case may be, is
clearly parochial, as shown by his
barely concealed lampooning of
lipschütz’s opponent.
‘Mr delmar – the delightful and
dashing delmar, is also well known
to all american chessplayers.
In fact, he has been in a chronic
state of well-knownness for the
last quarter of a century or there-
abouts. Mr delmar is a player of the
most wonderful abilities and he
could easily down all adversaries,
both living and dead, and even Mr
steinitz is not of much account in
his precious opinion. fortunately,
however, for steinitz, MacKenzie
and the other small fry, delmar’s
play is characterised by the great-
est forbearance, and never during
his long career has the terrible
force of his secret strength ever
been displayed against an adver-
sary and his scores, therefore, do
not bear the faintest semblance
of what he ‘could do’ – some other
time.’ ouch!
a typical example of the amusing
little feuds of the time is given
when mention is made of an article
in the new york times in 1888 in
a lIfE In chEss
which the writer diverges from
a rambling review of a seminal
work by George Hatfield Dingley
gossip into a criticism of steinitz
for asserting that he was a better
player than Morphy. this dubious
claim was based on the notion that
he had benefited from advances
in chess theory since Morphy’s
playing days and was no doubt
emboldened by Morphy’s prema-
ture death by stroke four years
earlier.
steinitz has been commonly
depicted in literature as a can-
tankerous old curmudgeon who
may have possibly been a bit mad,
but his unsurpassed skill at the
time, prodigious writings on the
game and total immersion in the
chess scene made him the ‘grand
fromage’ of the day, so many
of the disputes and personality
clashes seem to have coalesced
around him and his supporters
and detractors. Mind you, steinitz
did graciously concede as early as
1887 that he was somewhat over
the hill and no longer deserved the
title of world champion. It’s pos-
sible that negative depictions of
steinitz may have been exagger-
ated by the so called ‘Ink war’ that
erupted in print between afficio-
nados of the old ‘romantic’ style
and his new ‘Modern’ school of
chess.
BooK rEvIEw
davies’ book also gives a fasci-
nating insight into the peren-
nial obsession that chessplay-
ers have with the status of their
sport. It appears that chess ben-
efitted at the time from being
regarded as something of an aris-
tocratic game, played by gentle-
men. (women hardly feature in
the book at all, as their brains were
probably not considered suitable
at the time to such a complex
task. fast forward to 2015 and
nigel short’s provocative com-
ments about female chessplay-
ers!) we know that Morphy was
mortified at being described as
a chess professional, but by the
1880s and the rise of the Modern
school, it appears that prizemoney
was becoming more acceptable
and the notion of professional
involvement in what some viewed
as an essentially trivial pastime,
was losing its stigma. one para-
graph I found amusing came from
a review in the new york Evening
Post of gossip’s aforementioned
‘the chess Player’s Manual’, to
which lipschütz had written an
‘american appendix’.
‘In this age we have chess writers,
chess players, chess champions,
and chess clubs, and there is no
danger that the noble game will
die or even decay, but it is to be
regretted that it has not a stron-
ger hold at the fireside. Properly
OCTOBER 2015  83
guy wEst
speaking it has no rival, but there
are amusements, some of them
evil, which to a great extent sup-
plant it. of the young people of
the present day probably ten know
the value of a flush or full (sic full
house), and know it ‘for stamps’ as
they say – where only one knows
the difference between a bishop
and a knight’.
current chessplayers, dabbling
on the dark side with poker,
would do well to note that
evil lurks in such seductions!
a possible reason why pro-
fessionalism might have
started becoming more
acceptable can be found in
some extraordinary tour-
nament structures of the
day. for example, the 6th
american chess congress
was a 38 round event with play
on almost every day for two
months! (Many games were either
replayed or adjourned and contin-
ued another day, and the record
number of games for one contes-
tant was 49.) Mind you, the bizarre
Karpov – Kasparov match of 1984/5
was abandoned only after 48
games and 5 months of play, when
it was allegedly feared Karpov was
close to blowing a head gasket.
one of the Masters who con-
tested the 6th american chess
84  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
a lIfE In chEss
congress, jointly won by Mikhail
chigorin and the underappreci-
ated Max weiss of austria, was
james Mason. a funny incident is
detailed in the book where Mason
unwisely visits a bar before a game
and comes to the board inebri-
ated, lasting only 8 wobbly moves
before being bundled out of the
playing area by miffed committee
members. nowadays he would be
described as ‘tired and emotional’,
‘ Current chessplayers,
dabbling on the dark
side with poker, would
do well to note that evil
lurks in such seductions!
but the descriptions of the com-
mentators at the time were even
more poetic. It reminded me of a
more recent incident when Eddy
levi found himself confronted by
an under-the-weather Paul dozsa,
who proceeded to fall asleep at
the board and ultimately met the
same fate as Mason.
there is a funny report of an inci-
dent where a spectator, obviously
an afficionado of the romantic
school, asked jackson showalter,
‘don’t you feel ashamed to play
BooK rEvIEw
the french?’ the Master from
Kentucky replied, ‘yes I do, but
I can’t help it.’ this retort could
equally well have come from our
modern day friend across the
ditch, new zealand fM Michael
steadman.
one of my favourite paragraphs
in the book is a description of the
colourful ghd gossip, a person-
ality eerily familiar to all chess-
players. from the new
york times pen portraits
in 1889…
‘gossip, with his long
flowing beard, looks
like one of the old time
monks. he has a good
shaped cranium, bald
at the top, and is a little
above medium height.
he believes himself to
be one of the greatest chess-
players in the world, and thinks
that if everything had gone to his
liking he could have beaten all the
champions at the tournament.
he complained that his chair was
too low, and he once attributed
a defeat to that. finally, he got a
large ledger and sat upon it. he
did, in fact, seem to derive some
inspiration from its contents, for
he played two or three excellent
games afterward.’
apparently gossip was beset with
guy wEst
problems in new york, including
mistakenly thinking that food and
beverages were free of charge.
the retelling of his trials and trib-
ulations and how they prevented
him taking his rightful place at the
head of the field makes delight-
ful reading and left me chuckling
to myself for quite some time.
apparently the reason for his 15
move loss to chigorin was due
to drinking bad coffee, despite
the fact that chigorin had par-
taken of exactly the same brew.
his bed gets buried under several
feet of snow due to his ‘brute of a
chambermaid’ leaving the window
open and he has the misfortune
to impale his posterior on some
sharp tacks, left butter side up on
his chair by a careless workman.
only his contemporary, Mr delmar,
could perhaps rival gossip in
bearing such a terrible burden of
bad luck.
the amusing peccadilloes of
chessplayers seem to have
changed little throughout history.
the new york times described
an upset victory by hanham over
Blackburne, thus:
‘Major hanham’s hat was tilted
to one side in the evening as his
chances for beating Blackburne
grew brighter and brighter, and
when the great london champion
resigned, hanham’s hat was tilting
a lIfE In chEss
on his ear. It was a great event in
his life’.
our chess forebears were credit-
ably interested in conducting sci-
entific experiments to see which
characteristics might confer an
advantage on a chessplayer. first
there was a celebrated ‘married
versus single’ match, won by the
bachelors and, in 1891, a fiercely
contested ‘baldies versus hirsute’
match. due to some lairising by
the full headed lipschütz, the fol-
licly challenged bonces carried
the day and their victory was
enshrined in the match report with
these words:
‘at the end, the laural crowns of
victory concealed the absence of
hair on the shining craniums of the
bald-heads.’ well put, one must
concede.
space prevents me from saying
more about this lovingly compiled
book, which carries the reader right
up to the appearance of the swash-
buckling harry nelson Pillsbury
and finally Dr Emmanual Lasker,
who would hold the chess crown
for a record 27 years. towards the
end of his playing days lipschütz
even participates in a consultation
game against a team from havana
which includes a young player by
the grandiose name of josé raúl
capablanca y graupera. (as an
BooK rEvIEw
aside, I recall that the american IM
jay whitehead was quite pleased
when it was pointed out to him
that his surname was the angli-
cised version of capablanca.)
I heartily recommend this book
for the historical perspective it
provides, the humour and truths
about chessplayers that remain
unchanged over the long sweep
of history, and I congratulate one
of our own for such a remarkably
detailed work and for producing a
book that makes a valuable contri-
bution to the worldwide body of
historical chess knowledge.
lastly, I take from this book an
excellent phrase, attributed to
various culprits but most proba-
bly Isidor gunsberg, to use next
time I lose to a more senior player
than myself… ‘der alte goniff hat
mir geschwindelt.’ (the old crook
has swindled me!)
OCTOBER 2015  85
 Jussupow, and in correspondence demonstrated in the following game:
Neutralising 1.e4 chess it is a favourite of corr-GM 9.Re1 Bf5 10.Qb3 Qd7 11.Nc3 Nxc3

with the Petroff - Morgado. I will begin our coverage 12.Bxf5 Qxf5 13.bxc3 b6 14.h3 +/= h6
with the old main line. ? 15.cxd5 cxd5 16.Ne5 Bxe5 17.Rxe5
Part 1 Qd3 18.Rxd5 ± 1-0 (32) Najer,E (2634)
- Nisipeanu,L (2654) Jerusalem 2015)
Najer, Evgeniy 2634
By IM Max Illingworth
Wang, Yue 2726 7.O-O Be7 8.c4

Rus-chT Sochi 2015 (4)

8.Nc3 is another major trend that will
There are many situations where
be examined later.
a draw with Black is a good result -
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5
such as an individual match, team
8...Nb4 9.Be2 O-O 10.Nc3 Bf5
tournament or round robin. If we
3.Nc3 is a common response at the
take a team event, usually the
club level, when the Four Knights 10...Be6 is the old main line, but
tournament standings are decided by
transposition 3...Nc6 would be my it ran into major problems in the
‘match points’ (2 points for a match
recommendation, but those wanting early 2000s, such as in 11.Ne5 f6
win, regardless of the margin, 1 for a
to stay in Petroff waters can look into 12.Nf3 Kh8 13.a3 Nxc3 14.bxc3 Nc6
drawn match and 0 for a lost match),
( 3...Bb4 ) 15.Nd2 Na5 16.cxd5 Bxd5 17.c4 Bf7
and in this case a draw with Black
18.Bb2 f5 19.Bc3 c5 20.d5 Bf6 21.Qc2
usually brings the team closer to
3...d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 b6 22.Bd3 Bxc3 23.Qxc3 ± 1-0 (55)
the desired result as the other team
Kasimdzhanov,R (2652) - Adams,M
members can press with the White
5.Nc3 is the modern trend, and will be (2731) Tripoli 2004 )
pieces.
examined in the second part.
11.a3 Nxc3 12.bxc3 Nc6 13.Re1
Naturally, a draw with Black is also
5...d5 6.Bd3 Nc6!
desirable against a higher-rated
13.Bf4 is harmless as it facilitates
player, and obtaining an extremely
exchanges with 13...dxc4 14.Bxc4
solid position is a good step toward
Bd6 15.Bg3 Qd7 16.a4 Na5 17.Bd3 f6
this result. Sometimes, by obviously
18.Nh4 1/2 - 1/2 (18) Zupe,M (2373) -
playing to hold the draw, we can
Haba,P (2516) Austria 2003 18...Bxd3
make our opponent overpress and
19.Qxd3 g6 with equal chances
then even win the game. When
looking up recent games, I noticed
In general, minor piece trades favour
the Petroff was played by many of the
Black here due to his slight space
top Chinese players (especially Wang
disadvantage.
Yue) and therefore I have centred
my article on their approach to this
13.cxd5 Qxd5 is likely to transpose
opening.
to the main game. One exception is
This Jaenisch system is the main line if White charged forward with 14.c4
Of course we shouldn’t neglect
as the alternative 6...Bd6 7.O-O O-O ( 14. Re1 Rfe8 transposes to the game,
other great Petroff exponents such
8.c4 c6 gives White the initiative, as as does 14.Bf4 Rac8 15.Re1 Rfe8 )
as Gelfand, Kramnik, Ivanchuk and

86  50 MOVES MAGAZINE

14...Qd6 15.d5, however it is hard to
believe this can be effective when
White is behind in development, and
the 15...Ne5 16.Nd4 Bd7 17.a4 Rfe8
18.Nb5 Bxb5 19.axb5 Nd7 20.Ra2 Nc5
21.g3 a5 22.bxa6 Rxa6 23.Qc2 Rxa2
24.Qxa2 Qa6 25.Qxa6 Nxa6 26.Bf3
Bd6 27.Be3 Nc5 with equal chances
of ½ - ½ (32) Radjabov,T (2751) -
Jakovenko,D (2737) Elista 2008 is
a typical example of what Black is
aiming for in this
variation - to blockade White’s pawns
and hold the position, relying on the
fact he has no weaknesses. Obviously
with the pawns so fixed here, White’s
bishop pair can’t be considered an
advantage.
13...Re8 14.cxd5
14.Bf4 will be seen in the next game.
14...Qxd5 15.Bf4 Rac8
This is the tabiya position of the
8.c4 variation. White has a very
broad choice, but Black is relying on
the absence of weaknesses in his
position, along with White’s slightly
vulnerable queenside pawns.
16.Bd3 This move may look strange,
but it prepares Rb1, and prevents the
thematic ...Na5 because of Re5.
16.Qc1!? has been trendy, preparing
Qb2 to attack the b7-pawn followed
by c4, but Black can play 16...Bf6!
17.Qb2 Na5 18.Rad1
Black’s solid grip on the light squares
ensured he avoided danger after
18.Ne5 Qb3! 19.Qd2 Bxe5 20.Bxe5
Qe6 21.Qb2 Qb3 22.Qxb3 Nxb3
23.Ra2 c5 1/2 - 1/2 (30) Hicdoenmez,
H (1940) - Kubasky,A (2108) LSS email
2008
18...Qb3 19.Qxb3 Nxb3 20.Bc4 Na5
21.Ba2 c6 22.h3 was agreed drawn
in two games by the correspondence
player Serban, as Black will simply
blockade the light squares with 22...
b5 with equal chances and make
further progress impossible.
16.c4 Qe4 17.Be3 has some historical
significance, having been played in
one of the Kramnik-Leko World
Championship games, but Black
experiences no difficulties once the
queens come off:
or 17.Qd2 Bf6 18.Bf1 Qc2 19.Rxe8+
Rxe8 20.Qxc2 Bxc2 21.Rc1 Bf5 22.Rd1
Bc2 23.Rc1 1/2 - 1/2 (23) Brkic,A (2607)
- Saric,A (2577) Split 2015
17...Qc2! 18.d5 ( 18.c5 was suggested
by Tzermiadianos/Kotronias back in
2004, but they didn’t consider 18...
Bf6 19.Bb5 Qc3! keeping the pressure
on White’s centre, and after 20.Ra2
Bg4 Black was entirely fine in ½ - ½
(25)Serradimigni,R (2526) - Velilla
Velasco,F (2524) ICCF email 2007, a
key point being 21.d5 Bxf3 22.gxf3
Nd4! 23.Bxe8 Nxf3+ 24.Kh1 Qxe1+
25.Qxe1 Nxe1 with equal chances
18...Na5 19.Nd4 Qxd1 20.Raxd1 Bd7
21.Nb5 Bxb5 22.cxb5 b6 23.Bg4 Rcd8
24.Bf4 and now an improvement
over the Greeks’ old analysis is 24...
Bxa3! 25.Bxc7 Rxe1+ 26.Rxe1 Rxd5
27.Re8+ Bf8 with equal chances and
White cannot make progress, as
the 28.g3 f5 29.Bf3 Rd7 30.Ra8 Kf7
31.Rxa7 Bc5 32.Bd5+ Rxd5 of ½ - ½
(32) Lowrance,W (2537) - Schuster,P
(2506) FICGS email 2010 shows.
16.h3!? is the main alternative, when
after the correct 16...h6 ! White again
has a wide choice, but only two
serious attempts to pose problems:
17.Nd2 ( 17.Qc1 Qd7 18.Qb2 Bd6
19.Bxd6 cxd6 has proven even easier
to play for Black in some OTB games;
Nedev of fers the improvement
20.Nd2!? to reroute the knight to e3,
but I don’t see why White should be
at all better after 20...d5 21.Bf3 Na5
22.Rxe8+ Rxe8 23.Qa2 Be6 with equal
chances
17...Na5 18.Bf3 Qd7 19.Ne4 White
needs to keep his pieces active as
19.Nb3 Nxb3 20.Qxb3 c6 21.Be5 b5
22.a4 a6 23.axb5 axb5 24.c4 bxc4
25.Qxc4 1/2 - 1/2 (33) Ni,H (2646) -
Wang,Y (2706) China 2013 25...Be6
26.Qc3 Bf8 with equal chances is a
totally dead position.
OCTOBER 2015  87
neuTRAliSinG e4 WiTH THe PeTROff - P1
19...Rcd8 20.Ra2 b6 21.Rae2 Bxa3
22.Bg4
and in 1-0 (47) Anand,V (2780) -
Fridman,D (2667) Baden-Baden 2013
CBM 153, Andreikin demonstrates
that the cold-blooded 22...Be6! ,
preparing ...f5, would be fine for
Black, as demonstrated by the forcing
sequence 23.Bxh6 Bxg4 24.Nf6+ gxf6
25.Rxe8+ Rxe8 26.Rxe8+ Kh7 27.Qe1
Kxh6 28.Qe4 Kg7 29.Qa8 f5 30.hxg4
fxg4 31.Rh8 Nc4 32.Qg8+ Kf6 33.Rh7
Qd5 34.Qxg4 Bc1 with equal chances,
played in ½-½ (41) Halldorsson,H -
Costachi,M ICCF email 2014
16...Qd7
It is important to anticipate c4 and
Rb1-b5 ideas.
17.Rb1 b6 18.d5
18.Bb5 Bxb1 19.Qxb1 Bf6 ( 19...
Bxa3? 20.Re3! ) 20.Rd1 Qd5 21.Bg3
Ne7 22.Bxe8 Rxe8 is an entirely safe
position for Black, who can tie White
up by fixing the queenside pawns,
as in 23.Re1 Qc6 24.Qc2 b5 25.h3 g6
88  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
26.a4 b4 27.Rc1 bxc3 28.Qxc3 Qxa4
29.Ra1 Nd5 30.Qb2 Qc4 31.Rxa7 Nc3
32.Rxc7 Ne2+ 33.Kh2 Nxd4 34.Nxd4
Bxd4 35.Rxc4 Bxb2 1/2-1/2 (35)
Joao,N (2573) - Kunzelmann,F (2464)
ICCF email 2009
18...Bxd3 19.Qxd3 Bf6 The risky-
looking 19...Bxa3 has been the
preference in correspondence,
intending 20. Ng 5 g6 21. Ne 4
Qf5! 22.Bxc7 Rxc7 23.Nf6+ Qxf6
24.Rxe8+ Kg7 25.dxc6 Bc5 26.Rb2
Rxc6 27.Qd8 Qxd8 28.Rxd8 a5 !
with equal chances and Black had
no trouble holding the draw in ½-½
(44) Leko,P (2752)-Gelfand,B (2758)
Moscow 2009 CBM 133, or numerous
correspondence games following it.
20.c4 Ne7
This position is well known to be
a dead end for White despite the
computer’s favourable evaluation,
and this game did nothing to affect
that.
21.h3
21.Ne5 Bxe5 22.Bxe5 f6 23.Bf4
Nf5 with equal chances was rock
solid for Black in ½-½ (39) Svidler,P
(2742) - Kramnik,V (2743) Dortmund
2006 CBM 114 and indeed all
correspondence games from this
position were drawn.
21...Ng6 22.Bg3 h6
Equivalent is 22...h5 23.Nd4 Rcd8
24.Red1 h4 25.Bh2 Be5 26.Bxe5
Nxe5 27.Qc2 Qe7 28.a4 Qg5 29.Re1
c5 30.R xe5 R xe5 31.Nc6 Rde8
32.Nxe5 Qxe5 33.Rd1 f6 34.d6 Rd8
35.d7 1/2-1/2 (35) Petrolo,M (2603) -
Yefremov,Y (2558) ICCF email 2012
23.Nd4 Be5
23...Rcd8 with equal chances 24.Nc6
Bxg3 25.Qxg3 a6 Once again, White
is unable to make use of his space
advantage when the position is so
simplified, and while the computer
keeps giving +/=, in reality Black
wasn’t in any danger at all.
26.Rbd1 Ne7 27.Ne5 Qd6 28.Qf3 f6
29.Nd3 Ng6 30.Qg4 Ne5 31.Nxe5
fxe5 32.Rd3 Rcd8 33.Re4
33.a4 would permit 33...Re7 34.Rde3
Qb4 with equal chances 33...b5 !
Just in time, otherwise Black may
experience real pressure based on
his vulnerable e5-pawn.
34.Rc3 Also equal is the quiet 34.Ree3
Re7 35.cxb5 axb5 36.Qe2 b4 37.axb4
Qxb4 with equal chances
34...Re7 35.Qe2 bxc4 36.Qxc4
Rf7 37.Rce3 Qxd5 38.Qxd5 Rxd5
39.Rxe5 Rd1+ 40.Re1 Rd2 41.R1e2
Rxe2 42.Rxe2 Rf4 43.Rc2 Ra4 44.Rc3
c5 45.Rxc5
Conclusion: White can only hope for
a symbolic edge at best in this line,
 OPeninGS

and as long as Black knows a few key
moves, he will achieve a draw without
much difficulty.
1/2 - 1/2
Zhou, Weiqi 2590
Bu, Xiangzhi 2662
Danzhou 4th 2013
Here we will wrap up the other
options after 8.c4, to further elucidate
our general objective in playing the
Petroff.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3
Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Be7 7.O-O Nc6
8.c4 Nb4 9.Be2
Bxc6 25.Bd4 a6 26.Re5 Rfe8 27.Rxe8+
Rxe8 28.Be3 Rd8 29.f3 f6 30.Kf2 Kf7
31.h4 1/2-1/2 (31) Naiditsch,A (2678) -
Kramnik,V (2772) Dresden 2008 )
14.Bh6‼ Rg8
or 14...gxh6 15.Re5 Qd7 16.Rae1 Be6
17.d5 ! O-O-O 18.dxe6 fxe6 19.Rxe6 ±
15.Re5 Qd7 16.Rae1 Be6 17.Ng5
O-O-O 18.Nxf7 Bxf7 19.Rxe7 Qxd4
20.Rxf7 Qxc3 21.bxc3 gxh6 22.Rb1
+ − and White was just winning this
endgame in 1-0 (40) Browne,W (2575)
- Bisguier,A (2435) Chicago 1974
9...O-O 10.Nc3 Bf5 11.a3 Nxc3
12.bxc3 Nc6 13.Re1 Re8 14.Bf4 dxc4
28.a4 a6 29.axb5 axb5 30.Ra5 Re8+
31.Kd3 c6 32.Ra6 Re6 33.g4 Kf7 34.g5
Nc7 35.Ra7 Re7 with equal chances
1/2-1/2 (41) Winckelmann,T (2584) -
Cinca,D (2376) ICCF email 2010 )
17.Ng5 Bg6 18.Bxd6 cxd6 transposes
to the game.
17...cxd6 18.Ng5 If White wants to
fight for an edge, he needs to play
forcefully before Black brings his
rook into play; for instance, 18.Qd2
Qd7 19.Re1 d5 20.Ba2 Rd8 21.g3 Be6
22.Nh4 f6 23.Bb1 Bf7 24.Nf5 Re8
25.Rxe8+ Bxe8 with equal chances
was soon drawn in ½ - ½ (30) Keuter,K
(2494) - Joppich,U (2472) ICCF email
2014

This is important, to avoid 14...Rc8 18...Bg6 19.h4 Qe7 20.Qg4 h6

9.cxd5 is the Browne variation, made
?! 15.c5 ! +/= with a bind as Black’s
famous by the following spectacular
queenside pawns are vir tually
game: 9...Nxd3 10.Qxd3 Qxd5 11.Re1
immobilised.
Bf5 12.Nc3

15.Bxc4 Bd6 16.Rxe8+ Qxe8 As

Alternatively, the sharp and forcing
usual, every exchange of pieces
line 12.g4 Bg6 13.Nc3 Nxc3 14.Qxc3 f6
generally makes it easier for Black to
15.Qxc7 O-O 16.Rxe7 Qxf3 17.Rxg7+
hold the draw.
Kh8 18.Bh6 Qxg4+ 19.Qg3 Qxd4
20.Rxg6 hxg6 21.Bxf8 Rxf8 22.Rc1
17.Bxd6
Qxb2 results in this equal position,
which was drawn in a number of
17.Nh4 Na5 18.Nxf5 Nxc4 19.Qf3 Rb8
correspondence games.
20.Bh6 g6 21.Nxd6 Nxd6 22.Qf6 Nf5
23.Bf4 Qe7 24.Qxe7 Nxe7 is just a 21.Nh3
12...Nxc3 13.Qxc3 c6 ?
completely equal endgame, especially
as White’s light squares are a bit soft. 21.h5 has been known to lead to a
Correct is 13...Be6 14.Re5 Qc6 15.Qa5
draw from some games by Wang Yue:
Rd8 16.Bf4 O-O 17.Rc1 Qb6 18.Rb5
To give one correspondence game: 21...Bxh5 22.Qxh5 hxg5 23.Rd1 Rf8
Qxa5 19.Rxa5 Ra8 20.d5 Bd7 21.Ne5
25.Kf1 f6 26.Ke2 Nd5 27.Bd2 b5 24.Rd3 Qe1+ 25.Kh2 Qxf2 26.Qxg5
Bd6 22.Bg3 Bxe5 23.Bxe5 c6 24.dxc6

OCTOBER 2015  89
neuTRAliSinG e4 WiTH THe PeTROff - P1
Qf6 27.Qxf6 gxf6 28.Rg3+ Kh8
29.Rh3+ Kg7 30.Rg3+ Kh8 31.Rh3+
Kg7 32.Rg3+ ½-½ (32) Radjabov,T
(2740) - Wang,Y (2752) Medias 2010
CBM 137 )
21...Qe4 22.Qg3
22.Nf4 was another recent tr y,
however Black was fine after the
forcing sequence 22...Ne5 23.dxe5
Qxc4 24.e6
24.exd6 Rd8 ( Black could also take on
c3 ) 25.Rd1 Bc2 26.Rd2 Qxc3 27.Qe2
Ba4 with equal chances and while the
d-pawn looks scary, correspondence
games such as ½-½ (43) Gonzalez
Freixas,A (2530) - Bross,H (2589)
ICCF email 2007 have demonstrated
that Black experiences no objective
problems here.
24...fxe6 25.Qxg6 Qxf4 26.Qxe6+ Kh8
27.Rd1 Rf8 28.f3 Qxh4 29.Rxd6 Qg5
30.Rd7 Qc5+ 31.Kh2 Qh5+ 32.Kg1
Re8 33.Qg4 Qxg4 34.fxg4 b6 35.Rxa7
Rc8 with equal chances and the
rook endgame was just a draw in ½ -½
(53) Radjabov,T (2731) - Giri,A (2797)
Tbilisi 2015 )
22...Na5
Also good for equality is 22...Rc8
23.Bf1 Ne7 24.Qxd6 Nf5 25.Qb4 a5!?
(stopping d5 in response to Nh4)
26.Qxa5 Nxh4 27.Qe5 Qxe5 28.dxe5
Rxc3 29.Nf4 Be4 30.Rd1 with equal
chances 1/2-1/2 (30) Vohl,G (2446)
90  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
- Nataf,I (2434) ICCF email 2010 )
23.Ba2 Qc2 24.Bd5 Qd3 25.Qxd6
Qxc3 This had already been seen in
a correspondence game and once
again White doesn’t have a great way
to avoid a draw.
26.Rf1 Bd3 27.Rd1 Bc2 28.Rf1
33...Qb2 34.Rd1 Qc2 35.Rf1 Qd2 36.g3
Re1 with equal chances will end in a
likely draw by perpetual check.
28...Bd3 29.Rd1 Bc2 30.Rf1 Bd3
1/2 - 1/2
Sweircz, Dariusz 2614
Li, Chao B 2711
Bundesliga 2015
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3
Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.O-O Be7
8.Nc3!
This exchange is the modern way to
approach 5.d4 and I used to think it
offered pretty good chances of an
advantage.
8.Nbd2 Nxd2 9.Bxd2 Bg4 10.c3 O-O
11.Re1 Bd6 is totally fine for Black.
8.Re1 Bg4 9.c4 Nf6 10.Nc3 is another
major line, which featured in a couple
of GM games this year, but it has been
effectively neutralised: 10...Nxd4!
( 10...Bxf3 11.Qxf3 Nxd4 12.Qd1 is also
fine for Black, as long as he rejects
Gelfand’s old 12...Ne6 in favour of
the machine’s 12...dxc4! 13.Bxc4 c5
14.Qa4+ Qd7 15.Qxd7+ Kxd7 16.Be3
Rhd8 17.Bxd4 cxd4 18.Bb5+ Kd6
19.Rad1 Kc5 20.Re5+ Kd6 with either
a draw by repetition with 21.Re1, or
total equality after 21.f4 Bf8 22.Rxd4+
Kc7 with equal chances )
11.cxd5 Bxf 3 12.gxf 3 c5 13.d6
Playing to exploit the Black king’s
central position, however it proves
pretty safe on f8 due to White’s own
development/king safety issues.
13.dxc6 Nxc6 14.Bb5 O-O 15.Qxd8
Bxd8 with equal chances has been
the main choice in engine games, but
naturally Black is not in real danger in
such a position.
13...Qxd6 14.Nb5 Nxb5 15.Bxb5+ Kf8
16.Qe2 Qc7! Not the only move, but
the most logical, preparing ...Bd6
and intending 17.Bf4 Bd6 18.Bxd6+

Qxd6 19.Rad1 Qc7 20.Qe3 ( Brenjo’s
novelty 20.Bd7!? g6 21.Qe7+ Kg7
22.Rd6 Nxd7 23.Rxd7 Qf4 is entirely
safe for Black, who will play a rook to
e8 on the next move. Perpetual check
is an extremely likely result. ) 20...
a6 21.Ba4 0-1 (49) Bruzon Batista,L
(2669)-Wang,Y (2716) Danzhou 2015
21...b5 22.Bc2 h5 ! and Black will
activate his rook via. ...h4 and ...Rh5,
while the king is quite secure on f8.
8...Nxc3 9.bxc3 O-O
I used to think this move order was
less accurate than the more common
9...Bg4, but now I think it ’s an
equivalent move order as you avoid
10.Rb1 ( 10.Re1 O-O transposes to
the game. ) 10...Rb8 11.h3 Bh5 12.Bf5!
Diagram [#]
which disrupts Black ’s natural
development, e.g. 12...O-O 13.Re1
Bg6 14.Qd3 Bxf5 ( 14...a6 is also fine,
as demonstrated by 15.Bxg6 hxg6
16.c4 dxc4 17.Qxc4 Bf6 18.Bf4 Nxd4
19.Nxd4 Qxd4 20.Qxd4 Bxd4 21.Bxc7
Rbe8 22.Red1 Bc5 23.Rd5 b6 24.Bxb6
Bxb6 25.Rxb6 Re1+ 26.Kh2 Re2 1/2
- 1/2 (30) Efimenko,Z (2701) - Li, C
(2649) Wijk aan Zee 2011
27.f3 Rc8 28.Rd4 g5 29.Rxa6 Rcxc2
30.Rg4 Rxa2 31.Rxa2 Rxa2 32.Rxg5
g6 with equal chances and of course
this is a basic draw.
15.Qxf5 b5 16.Bf4 Rb6 17.Re2 Bf6
18.Rbe1 and in ½-½ (48) Swiercz,D
(2614)-Landa, K (2647) Germany 2014,
Black could have kept an impregnable
position with 18...Ne7 19.Qd3 Ng6
20.Bg3 Qd7 with equal chances
10.Re1
10 . h 3 was considered the
disadvantage of 9...0-0, however the
light-squared bishop can find other
good squares: 10...Re8 11.Rb1 or
11.Re1 Be6 12.Rb1 Rb8 13.Bf4 Bd6
with equal chances ) 11...b6 12.Re1
Bd6 with equal chances and Black
had no problems coordinating in
0-1 (67) Nepomniachtchi,I (2714) -
Mamedyarov,S (2757) Sochi 2014
10...Bg4
This makes sense in conjunction
with h3 Bh5, but I’m a bit puzzled
as to why Li Chao didn’t play 10...
Be6 if he wanted his bishop on this
square, especially since h3 is a pretty
normal move for these positions.
Maybe this was his preparation and
he played ...Bg4 out of habit? Anyway,
after 11.h3 Re8 we transpose to the
previous note.
OPeninGS
11.h3
11.Bf4 is the main line, and here Black
must avoid a few landmines to reach
equality: 11...Bd6 12.Bxd6 Bxf3 ! ( 12...
Qxd6 ? 13.Bxh7+ Kxh7 14.Ng5+ Kg6
15.Qxg4 f5 16.Qh4 Rh8 17.Re6+ Qxe6
18.Qxh8 Rxh8 19.Nxe6 Ne7 20.Re1
c6 21.Nf4+ + − as occurred in 1-0
(21) Durarbayli,V (2501) - Zeynalov,F
(2328) Baku 2010 really should be
avoided.
13.Qxf3 Qxd6
Once Black gets to here, he is pretty
safe, with White unable to make
anything of his momentary initiative.
14.Re3
14.Rab1 b6 doesn’t change much.
14...Rae8 15.Rae1 Re7 16.Rxe7 Nxe7
17.h4 Rd8 17...c6!? also makes sense,
to limit the White bishop’s scope.
18.c4 b6 19.c3 h6 20.cxd5 Nxd5 with
equal chances
We are quite intimate with this
structure already.
21.Bc4 c6 22.Re5 Nf6 23.Qf4 Qd7
24.g3 Kf8 25.Bb3 1/2-1/2 (25)
Grischuk,A (2747) - Kramnik,V (2785)
Kazan 2011
It ’s worth pointing out that the
insertion of 11.Rb1 Rb8 favours
Black, as after 12.Bf4 Bd6 13.Bxd6
Qxd6 with equal chances there is
OCTOBER 2015  91
neuTRAliSinG e4 WiTH THe PeTROff - P1
no Bxh7 tactic now: 14.Bxh7+ ? Kxh7
15.Ng5+ Kg6 16.Qxg4 f5 17.Qh4 Rh8
18.Re6+ Qxe6 19.Qxh8 Qe7 ! and we
can appreciate the difference - the
rook on b8 is defended!
11...Be6
11...Bh5 12.Rb1 Rb8 transposes to a
major line where after 13.Bf5
13.c4 dxc4 14.Bxc4 b5!? 15.Rxb5
Rxb5 16.Bxb5 Bxf3 17.Qxf3 Nxd4
18.Qe4 Nxb5 19.Qxe7 Nd4 with equal
chances and ...Ne6 is nothing tangible
for White.
13...Bg6 White might also consider
14.Bxg6!? ( 14.Qd3 was addressed in
the note to move 9. ) 14...hxg6 15.c4 ,
as played in numerous Solak games,
however all of them ended in draws.
One good continuation is 15...Bb4!?
16.Rf1 Be7 asking White to find a
more useful move.
17.Qd3 Na5 18.cxd5 Qxd5 19.Re1 or
92  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
19.Rb5 Qxa2 20.Bd2 Nc4 21.Bc3 a6
22.Rb3 Na5 23.Ra1 Nxb3 24.Rxa2
Nc1 25.Qc4 b5 26.Qxc7 Nxa2 with
equal chances 19...Bd6 with equal
chances 1/2 - 1/2 (19) Mary,P (2505) -
Kunzelmann,F (2498) ICCF email 2011
12.Bf4
12.Rb1 Rb8 13.Nh2! intending Qh5 is
a critical try and I don’t see how Black
fully equalises here, for instance:
13...Qd7 14.Qh5 g6 15.Qf3 b5 or 15...
Rfe8 16.Ng4 Bxg4 17.hxg4 a6 18.Bf4
b5 19.g5 +/= and I would rather be
White because of the possibility of
h-file play.
16.Bh6 Rfe8 17.Ng4 Bxg4 18.Qxg4
Qxg4 19.hxg4 a6 20.Bf4 Bd6 21.Rxe8+
Rxe8 22.Bxd6 cxd6 23.a4 bxa4 24.Ra1
a5 25.Bb5 Rc8 26.Bxa4 Ne7 27.Bb3
Ra8 28.Kf1 +/=
and White has the better minor piece
and pawn structure, so this is not
drawn yet.
12...Bd6 13.Qd2
13.Ne5 Nxe5 14.dxe5 Be7 changes
the position, but not to White’s
advantage.
13...Bxf4 14.Qxf4 h6
Now Black has consolidated his
position and will equalise with normal
developing moves.
15.Ne5 Nxe5 16.Rxe5 Qd6 17.Qe3
Rac8 18.Re1 c5 19.g4 Bd7 20.Re7
c4 21.Bf5 Bxf5 22.gxf5 Rc7 23.Rxc7
Qxc7 24.f6 Rd8 25.Kh1 Qc6 26.fxg7
Rd6 27.Qe7 K xg7 28.Qe5+ Rf6
29.Rg1+ Kh7 30.Qb8 Rg6 31.Rxg6
Kxg6 32.Qxa7 Qe6 33.Qxb7 Qxh3+
34.Kg1 Qg4+ 35.Kf1 Qh3+ 36.Kg1
Qxc3 37.Qc6+ Kg7 38.Qxd5 Qxc2
39.Qe5+ Kh7 40.d5 c3 41.d6 Qd1+
42.Kg2 Qg4+ 43.Qg3 Qxg3+ 44.fxg3
c2 45.d7 c1=Q 46.d8=Q Qc2+ 47.Kh3
Qxa2 48.Qd3+ Kg7 49.Qd4+ f6
50.Qg4+ Kf8 51.Qg6 Qe6+ 52.Kh2
Qe2+ 53.Kh3 Qf1+ 54.Kh2
This wraps up our 5.d4 coverage,
and we can conclude that Black is
extremely safe in these positions,
and White cannot hope for an
advantage if Black is prepared. Also,
from a practical perspective it is quite
easy for Black to memorise certain
defensive setups that White will not
manage to break down.
 OPeninGS

1/2 - 1/2

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OCTOBER 2015  93
Endgame Lessons
with FM Chris Wallis
In this column, we will look at exam-
ples of the mistaken use of ‘rules of
thumb’ in situations where they do
not strictly apply.
This mistake appears in a variety of
forms; on the one hand, there exist
many highly detailed ‘theorems’ (for
example, Bahr’s Rule and Centurini’s
Line) which hold only for a given del-
icate configuration of pieces; also,
there are more general statements
and notions (activate the king in
the endgame, rooks belong behind
passed pawns, exchange when ahead
on material, etc.) which we are in the
habit of following, but which can lead
one astray in subtle situations. It is
true that nobody disputes the use-
fulness of such ideas, in general - but
although they can be taken as the
default position, we should retain the
flexibility to interpret the position dif-
ferently, as the need arises.
Game 1
Wallis, Christopher
Brown, Andrew
Australian Young Masters, 2010
94  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
I had been trying to win this ending
for a very long time, but failing mis-
erably; in fact, so long as Black main-
tains the status quo, it shouldn’t be
possible.
79...Ng6
79...Bf8 is safest - then, 80.Kh4 Bd6
81.Kh5 runs into 81...Nf3 , intending
all sorts of mischief (eg Ke5, Nd2-f1).
80.Kg4
Here we have one of the ‘theorems’
alluded to above - that, under spe-
cific circumstances, the ending B
+ 2Ps (connected) vs. B (opposite
colour) is drawn. The rule, however,
only applies if the bishop is already
AUGUST 2015  94
on the correct diagonal, restraining,
with assistance from the king, one of
the pawns, and attacking the other
[a typical setup of this nature would
be: W Kg4, Pf4, Pe4 - B Kf6, Bd6]. This
should not be taken to be a general
assessment of the ending, and there
are many, many positions where the
defender gets into trouble with this-
material balance - it will be relevant
later that the same configuration, but
shifted forward, with the pawns on
the 6th rank, is losing for Black (see
any general endgame text for the
theory of these situations).
80...Nxf4??
Thus, this is a mistake. 80...Bf8 still
draws.
81.gxf4 Bg7
81...Bf8 is more critical - the
bishop needs to come around
to d6 as soon as pos sible.
Even here, it shouldn’t be on time,
in view of 82.e5+ when the pawns
cannot be properly restrained and
will reach the 6th rank; 82...Ke7 This
is the best practical chance; Black
allows an immediate f4-f5, but it

Rules of Thumb?
would be a mistake.
82...Kg7 83.Bc4 Be7 84.f5 Bd8 85.Kf4
and the king will come aroulnd to e6
to support f6+.
83.Bc4
83.f5 Bg7 is in fact drawn, in accor-
dance with the rule stated above.
83...Bg7
83...Bh6 84.Bd5 and Black is in zugz-
wang, since the king needs to control
f6 (to prevent a an f5-f6 run), while
if the bishop retreats White’s king
enters via h5.
84.Kh5 Bh8 85.Kg6 and Black is threat-
ened with the loss of his bishop; in
fact this is unavoidable due to zugz-
wang, eg 85...Kf8 86.Kh7 Bg7 87.Bb3.
82.Kh5??
82.e5+ Ke7 83.Kh5 wins as after 81...
Bf8.
82...Bf8 83.Bd5 Clearly 83.e5+ Kf5 is
out of the question.
83...Bd6 As the standard draw has
been reached, White has nothing
better than 84.e5+ Bxe5 85.fxe5+
Kxe5 1/2 - 1/2
endGAMe leSSOn
Game 2
Mukhin, Evgeny
Tal, Mikhail
USSR Championship 1972
Diagram Above: Tal (in his classic
‘The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal’)
: ‘But here 16. 0-0 should have
been given preference. The point is
that, although the queens have dis-
appeared, there are still sufficient
pieces on the board for the position
to have a middlegame character.
Thus the position of the king in the
centre, which is certainly favourable
in endings, turns out to be double-
edged.’ This is an impressively deep
evaluation; detailed analysis and
the course of the game both seem
to confirm Tal’s view. The trouble is
that it can feel very foolish to castle
in such a situation, when the ending
seems near - often such ‘evacua-
tions’ are paid for later with back rank
difficulties and a loss of time!
16...Rac8 17.Bd3
The most natural move; probably
Tal’s criticism of it was influenced
by the course of the game, since his
annotations miss the computer’s
improvement at move 19.
17...Bc6 18.f3 Nd7 19.Ne4?!
19.Rhc1! Bf6 ( Or 19...Ne5 20.Bb5 )
20.Rab1 was perhaps the best way
to arrange the rooks - 20...Ne5 21.Bb5
Bxb5+ 22.Nxb5 Rxc1 23.Bxc1 a6
24.Nd4 seems to be holding on well
enouugh, though the position is more
pleasant for Black.
19...f5 20.Nd2 ?
20.Nf2 was necessary, to avoid the
tactical difficulties of the game.
20...Nb6 Surprisingly, Tal is probably
winning already as a result of 19.Nd2!
21.Bd4
21.b5 Be8 22.a4 Rxd3! 23.Kxd3 Bb4
OCTOBER 2015  95

with various threats (...Nxa4, ...Rd8+)
is an interesting sideline. )
21...e5 Tal seems to be one step
ahead of his opponent, at each turn...
22.Bc5 ( Tal points out the following
spectacular variation: 22.Bxe5 Rxd3
23.Kxd3 Bb5+ 24.Kd4 Na4 25.Kd5 Kf7
26.Bd4 Bf6 27.Bxf6 gxf6 28.Kd6 Rc6+
29.Kd5 Rc7 30.Ne4 Rd7+ 31.Nd6+ Ke7
with mate to follow. Mating attacks in
the ending are uncommon, but quite
possible!
22...Rxd3! 23.Kxd3 Bb5+ 24.Kc2 Na4
25.Kb3
25.Kd1 loses in any case to 25...Bf6 ,
due to the embarrassment of White’s
bishop, which has taken up too great
a burden.
25...b6! 26.Nc4
Not 26.Bxe7 Rc3+ 27.Ka2 Rc2+ 28.Kb1
( 28.Kb3 Rb2# ) 28...Bd3 and ...Nc3+
- Black’s three pieces work very
efficiently!
26...bxc5 27.Nxe5 cxb4 28.Rac1
Nc5+ 29.Kxb4 a6 A cautionary tale.
0-1
96  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
endGAMe leSSSOn
82.Kf5 Nf2 83.h4 Nxg4 84.Kxg4 Ke6
Game 3
82...Nf4 83.Kf5 Ne6 is easily drawn as
Fischer, Robert James
the king and knight have to go back
Taimanov, Mark and forth.
Candidates Tournament 1971
82.Bc8 Kf4
But now 82...Nd3 would lose to
83.Bf5+, so there is nothing to be
(D) done.
83.h4 Nf3 84.h5 Ng5 85.Bf5 Nf3
86.h6 Ng5 87.Kg6 Nf3 88.h7 Ne5+
89.Kf6
The loss of this concretely drawn
ending, understandable though
it may be at the end of a long
session (of course, knight endings
This is an excellent example of over- can be somewhat counter-intui-
generalising the rule ‘when in doubt, tive) was a most unfortunateoc-
activate the king!’. Of course the most currence for Taimanov, given the
natural thing is to march towards final score of the match (6-0! ). 1-0
White’s pawn, but due to a subtle tac-
tical issue this was actually the only
way to lose: 81...Ke4 ?
It was necessary to move the knight
to d3, either here or after a prelimi-
nary king move: 81...Nd3 82.h4
An especially interesting line occurs
following 82.Kg5 Ke5 83.h4 Nf4
84.Bf5 (all very natural) - of course,
whereupon 84...Kd6 !? would take
advantage of another feature of the
position.

Game 4
Jussupow, Artur
Timman, Jan
Candidates Tournament 1992
23. Rc7 Of course not 23.Rc4? Ba6
23...Bxe4 24.Re1 Rae8 25.Rxa7 Kg7
As Dvoretsky observes, Jussupow’s
next move is inaccurate:
26.Kf2
26.g4, restraining Black’s possibilities
should be preferred, but White lets
the chance slip.
26...h5 27.g3 Kf6 28.h3?
A serious mistake; Black now gets the
chance to unwind, especially by the
manoeuvre ...Bf5-e6 to trade White’s
nuisance bishop.
28.Rd7 is good prophylaxis; Black’s
position is effectively frozen, so
White can prepare the advance of
the a-pawn.
28...Ra8 29.Rc7 Bf5 30.h4 Be6
31.Rc6 Rfc8 32.Rxc8 Rxc8 33.Bxe6
fxe6 34.a4 Ra8 (D)
A critical moment is reached. Of
course, ‘every Russian schoolboy’
knows that the rook belongs behind
the passed pawn,but 35.Ra1 here
costs White half a point!
35.Re4 is necessary - for one thing,
maintaining the existence of Black’s
wretched e6-pawn. The situation on
the kingside remains heavily favour-
able and White will be able to properly
support his a-pawn, with the king; the
position is winning for White.
35...Ra5
Black may as well stop the pawn
advancing any fur ther before
exchanging the e- and f-pawns.
36.Ke3 e5 37.Ke4 exf4 38.Kxf4
Despite the favourable stance of the
rooks, it’s not possible to win this
position as White’s g-pawn is too
vulnerable.
38...Ke6 39.Ke4
39.Re1+ Kf6 40.Re4 was a better
winning attempt. 40...g5+
41.hxg5+ does contain a simple trick,
but so long as Black responds 41...Kg6
( 41...Rxg5 42.Re6+ Kxe6 43.Kxg5 is a
loss.) 42.Rd4 Rf5+ 43.Ke4 Rxg5 this
is no problem.
41.Ke3 however can, for instance,
be met with 41...gxh4 42.gxh4 Kf5
whereupon White will be unable to
make progress, eg 43.Rc4 Ke5 44.Kd3
Kd5 45.Kc3 Ra8 46.Rf4 Ke5 etc.
39...g5 40.hxg5 Rxg5 41.Kf3 Ra5
42.Re1+ Kf5 43.Re4 Rc5 44.Re3 Ra5
45.Ra3 Ke5 46.Ke3 Ke6 47.Ke2 Kd6
48.Kf2 Ke6 49.Re3+ Kd5 50.Ra3
Ke6 51.Ke3 h4 52.g4 Kf6 53.Kf4 Kg6
54.Kf3 Kg5 55.Ra2 h3
So, while it’s good to know about
these rules - in fact, without some
general notions, or that ‘default posi-
tion’ which was alluded to, a lot of
time mayneedlessly be wasted rein-
venting the wheel. However, keep in
mind the limitations of these ideas
- they don’t necessarily to apply in
every situation! Routine thinking is
often punished severely, as we have
seen in these four examples.
OCTOBER 2015  97
SOluTiOnS
SOLuTION 1 SOLuTION 2
White is a pawn up, but must be This time it is one pawn each, and
accurate. since White is closer to the kingside,
the question is when the king should
1.Kg4! go for the h-pawn - Black’s king must
not be allowed to reach the g-pawn.
1.Kh5? Kf4! 2.h3 Kg3 3.Kh6 Kh4!
1.Kc7
1.h3? Kf4 is the same.
1.Kd7 ? Kb6 2.Ke6 Kc5 3.Kf5 Kd4 4.Kg6
1...Ke6 Ke4 with equal chances
1...Ke4 2.h4! Ke5 3.Kh5! 1...Ka6 2.Kc6 Ka5 3.Kc5 Ka4 4.Kc4
Ka3 5.Kc3 Ka2 6.Kc2 Ka3 7.g3!
2.Kh5! Kf7
7.g4 ? Kb4 8.Kd3 Kc5 9.Ke4 Kd6 10.Kf5
2...Kf5 3.h4 + − h5! with equal chances
3.Kh6 Kg8 4.h3! 7...Kb4
4.h4 Kh8 with equal chances 7...Ka2 8.g4 Ka3 9.Kd3 Kb3 10.Ke4 Kc4
11.Kf5 Kd5 12.Kg6 + −
4...Kh8 5.h4 Kg8 6.h5 Kh8 7.g6 hxg6
8.hxg6 + − 8.Kd3 Kc5 9.Ke4 Kd6 10.Kf5 Kd5
11.g4 + −
98  50 MOVES MAGAZINE
SOLuTION 3
White must execute a delicate opera-
tion - Black’s king will try and keep the
opposition (close and distant), so if
White carelessly goes towards Black’s
b-pawn, Black will gobble up White’s
g-pawn and both sides will queen.
The win involves approaching the
b-pawn, forcing Black’s king to step
on a square where White can take the
distant opposition and return to the
kingside to outflank.
1.Ke4 Kg4 2.Kd5 Kh5
2...Kf5 3.Kd4 Kg5 4.Ke5 Kg4 5.Kf6 Kh4
6.Kf5 Kg3 7.Kg5
2...Kg3 3.Ke5 Kg4 4.Kf6 + −
2...Kh4 3.Kd4 Kh5 4.Kd5 + −
3.Kc6! Kg5
3...Kh4 4.Kd6! Kg3 ( 4...Kg4 5.Ke6 ! )
5.Ke5 Kg4 6.Kf6 + −
3...Kg6 keeps the distant opposition,
 SOluTiOnS

but strays too far from the g-pawn. 1...c5 2.Ke5 Ke3 3.Kd5 Kd3 4.Kxc5 + −

4.Kxb5 Kf5 5.Kc6 Kg4 6.Kd5! Kg3 2.Ke5 c6

7.Ke4 Kxg2 8.Kxf4 + −
2...Kd3 3.Kd5 c6+ 4.Kc5 Kc3 5.a4 + −
4.Kc5!
3.a4 Kd3 4.a5 c5
( 4.Kxb5 ? Kg4 )
Black’s pawn will reach the 7th rank
4...Kg4 - how can White utilise the queen to
win?
( 4...Kh4 5.Kd4 Kh5 6.Kd5 )
SOLuTION 5
5.a6 c4 6.a7 c3 7.a8=Q c2 8.Qd5+!
5.Kd6 Outflanking. The only move to win.
We can expect a tactical study from
Wotawa, even with pawns only.
5...Kh5 6.Kd5 Kh4 8.Qe4+ ? Kd2 9.Qd4+ Ke2 10.Qc3 Kd1
11.Qd3+ Kc1 12.Kd4 Kb2 13.Qd2 Kb1
1.axb3!
6...Kg6 7.Ke4 Kg5 8.Ke5 7.Ke6 Kg5 with equal chances
8.Ke5 Kg4 9.Kf6 Kg3 10.Kf5 + − *
1.f4+ ? Ke6 2.axb3 h6+ 3.Kh5 Ke7
8...Ke3
Black’s idea becomes clear. 4.c5 Kf8
5.c6 Kg8 6.c7 Kh7 7.c8=Q g6#
8...Kc3 9.Qd4+ Kb3 10.Qa1 + −

1.cxb3 ? h6+ 2.Kh5 Kd6 3.c5+ Kxc5

8...Ke2 9.Qa2! Kd1 10.Kd4 c1=Q 11.Kd3
4.b4+ Kd6 5.b5 Ke7 6.b6 Kf8 7.b7
+−
Kg8 8.b8=Q+ Kh7 and the same plan
triumphs.
9.Qg2! Kd3

1...h6+ 2.Kh5 Kd6!

9...c1=Q 10.Qg5+ + −

2...Ke6 ? 3.c5 Ke7 4.c6 Kd6 5.c4 Kxc6

10.Qg5 + −
6.b4 is even losing for Black.

SOLuTION 4
3.c5+! There is no time to waste. 3...
Kxc5 4.c4 Kd6 5.c5+ Kxc5 6.c4 Kd6
White would like to push his a-pawn
7.c5+ Kxc5 8.b4+ Kd6
and stop the c-pawn:

If 8...Kxb4 , 9.f4 with equal chances

1.Kf5 Ke3
and Black must accept a draw by
stalemate.

OCTOBER 2015  99
SOluTiOnS

1.Ke4 9.Kc2 ? Kxh5 − +

9.b5 Ke7 10.b6 Kf8 11.b7 Kg8 ( 1.Kc3 ? Kg7 2.Kb3 Kg6 3.Ka4 c6 9.Ka4 ? d3 10.Ka5 d2 11.a4 Kg5 12.h6
12.b8=Q+ Kh7 13.Qh8+ 4.Ka5 Kh5 5.a4 sets up a stalemate d1=Q − +
but Black can release it with 5...d5!
( 13.Qg8+ = also draws. ) 6.cxd5 cxd5 7.Kb5 c4 − + ) 9...Kg7 10.Kc2

13...Kxh8 14.f4 f6
( 14...g6+ 15.Kxh6 Kg8 16.h5 with
equal chances )
15.Kg6 Kg8 16.Kxf5 Kf7 17.h5 g6+
( 17...Ke8 18.Kg6 Kf8 19.f5 Kg8 )
18.hxg6+ Kg7 19.Kg4 Kxg6 20.f5+
Kf7 21.Kh5 Kg7 22.Kg4 =
1...c6 2.Kf5! d5 3.Ke5 d4 4.Ke4 Kg7
5.Kd3!
5.Kf4 ? Kg6 6.Kg4 Kh6 7.a3 ( 7.h5 d3
8.Kf3 Kxh5 9.Ke3 Kg4 10.Kxd3 Kf3 −
+ ) 7...Kg6 8.h5+ Kh6 9.a4 d3 10.Kf3
Kxh5 11.Ke3 Kg4 12.Kxd3 Kf3 − +
5...Kg6 6.Kc2 Kf5
6...Kh5 7.Kb3 ( 7.Kb2 ? Kxh4 8.Kb3 d3
9.Kc3 Kg4 10.Kxd3 Kf3 − + )
7...Kxh4 ( 7...Kg4 8.h5 Kf3 9.h6 d3
10.Kc3! ( 10.h7 ? d2 11.h8=Q d1=Q+
12.Kb2 Qd4+ ) 10...Ke2 11.h7 with
equal chances )
10.Ka4? Kh7 11.Ka5 ( 11.h6 d3 12.Kb3
Kxh6 13.Kc3 Kg5 14.Kxd3 Kf4 − + ) 11...
d3 12.a4 d2 13.h6 Kg6 ! 14.h7 d1=Q
−+
10.h6+? Kh7! − +
10...Kh7
10...Kf6 11.h6 ( 11.Kb2 ? Kg5 12.Kb3
Kh6 )
11...Kg6 12.h7! Kxh7 13.Kb3 d3 14.Kc3
Kg6 15.Kxd3 Kf5 16.Ke3 Ke5 17.a4
with equal chances
11.Kb2 Kh6 12.Kb3

7...d3 8.Kc3 Kxh4 9.Kxd3 Kg5 10.Ke4 Black has no more waiting moves:
Kf6 with equal chances ) 8.Ka4! 12...K xh5 13.Ka4! and now the
d3! 9.Ka5! ( 9.Kb3 ? Kg4 10.Kc3 Kf4 s t alemate idea is success ful.
11.Kxd3 Kf3 − + ) 9...d2 10.a4 d1=Q ) 13...d3 14.Ka5! d2 15.a4 d1=Q

SOLuTION 6 7.h5!

A complex situation - the number of
pawns are equal, but White’s a-pawns
are blocked, and Black seems to have
the advantage after 1...c6, since White
can’t save the h-pawn - how is the
draw accomplished?
( 7.Kb3 ? Ke4 8.h5 d3 9.h6 Ke3 10.h7
d2 11.h8=Q d1=Q+ 12.Ka3 Qd3+
13.Kb2 Qd4+ − + )
7...Kg5 8.Kb3!
( 8.h6 ? Kxh6 9.Kb3 d3 10.Kc3 Kg5
11.Kxd3 Kf4 − + )

8...Kh6! 9.a3!
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1. Nxf6+ Ke7 2. Nxd7 1. Ne7+ Kh8 2. Nxc8 1. Ne6+ Kf7 2. Nxd8+

1. Ng6+ Kh7 2. Nxe7 1. Nh6+ Kf8 2. Nxf7 Kxf7 1. Nf2+ Kg1 2. Nd3 Qg3 3.
3. Bg4 Nxc1

1. Nxg6+ Kg8 2. Nxf8 1. Ne7+ Kh7 2. Nxg6 Kxg6 1. Qxf8+! Bxf8 2. Nf7+ Kg8
3. Bxe4+ 3. Nxg5 Bxc6+ 4. Kg1

OCTOBER 2015  101
 SOluTiOnS

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102  50 MOVES MAGAZINE OCTOBER 2015  102